Stand Your Ground
by liza22
Summary: Bella and her abusive father move to Forks. All she wants is to be left alone, but when she meets the Cullen's everything changes. Will they push her over the edge or will she let them in? WARNING ABUSE! May contain future rape! R&R ON HOLD
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: Hey everyone this is my first story and I'm pretty nervous. Anyway the first chapter is pretty small but don't worry they will get longer! Just a WARNING this story does have abuse in it!**

**Stand Your Ground**

Suck it up

_I was walking in a deep forest with my hands stretched out as I glided my fingers onto the trees that I passed bye. I looked down and was wearing a very light yellow silk dress that was swaying in the wind. I could feel every rock and every twig in my bare feet but it didn't hurt. I looked up to the stars and smiled. _

_There was a small clearing coming up and I could hear water. It sounded heavy, like it could be a waterfall. When I finally looked down I was leaning over a cliff. I looked heavenly like it was pulling me towards it. _

_I could hear birds singing around me and squirrels chasing one another. I had never felt this happy in my life. I smiled brightly to myself, inhaled my last breath and jumped. _

_Just when I thought I was going to hit the water and die peacefully I felt a sudden change and then strong hands around my neck._

"_Did you really think you could get of so easy?" His cold voice echoed around me. I tried to shut my eyes but he gripped tighter. I knew what he wanted, and I tried so hard not to give it to him. That just made him angrier. So I slowly opened my eyes and was staring in his. A deep muddy brown filled with hate and loathing. He wanted his face to be the last thing that I saw before he killed me. _

"_Well my ungrateful whore its been fun." He started laughing and I could feel myself going. _

_**Beep. Beep. Beep**_

"Ugh" I snapped my head up and my eyes open. I threw one hand to the alarm clock on my nightstand to turn it off, while the other to my neck. I held my breath and I strained my ears to see if the sound had woken Charlie up. I'm sure he's passed out downstairs, but I really can't afford to make him mad this morning.

I lay back down on my pillow feeling the back of my head. My hair felt crunchy were my fingers were rubbing and I knew it was dry blood from last night.

I still had my right hand around my neck and was gripping it tighter than I thought. I slowly lowered both hands to my side's and tried to shake out my sweaty palms.

I reluctantly tried to get up and swayed a little, seeing black dots in front of me. I sat back down on my bed and took a deep breath.

"Suck it up Bella! You've had worse!" This was definitely true. Charlie was mad last night but his punches weren't that bad.

I inhaled another breath and slowly rose from my bed. I can feel every bruise and cut on my body but I just ignore the pain that's screaming at me, knowing I cant do anything to stop it. I grab some clothes from the side of my bed and a small bag of toilette's and inhale another breath. I can feel the fear start to creep up on me and my hands being to shake. I put my left ear to my door. Everything seems quiet, so I cautiously put my hand on the knob and turn it. I pause for another moment and then open my door just a small crack. I peak my head into the hallway and look to my left and then to my right. I silently tip toe to the bathroom.

"where the hell do you think your going?" I gasp, and come completely frozen.

"I asked you a question you dumb whore!" Before I get a chance to turn around, Charlie pulls me back to him grabbing my hair. I bit my lip making sure I don't scream.

His breath is right at my ear "did I not make myself heard last night" I can hear the smile in his voice.

He violently turned my face to his and I came in contact with his hand. Suddenly he threw me down the stairs. I manage to hit every step with my body. I come crashing down to the final step, my left side goes right into the edge and I can feel my ribs being crushed underneath me.

Before I get a chance to catch my breath Charlie's steal toe boots come in contact with my right side. I can hear him laughing as he kicks and punches me. I know he's yelling at me but I can barely make out what he's saying. The only thing that is running through my head at this moment, is that from last's nights beating and now this, I now I'm not going to last much longer before I become unconscious. The only question is, will I ever wake up again?


	2. Surprises

EPOV

"Edward hurry up, were going to be late!" Why Alice screams all never know. I shook my head and slowly went downstairs to were my siblings were waiting for me.

"Alice you don't have to scream we can all hear you." I told her sarcastically. I glanced at my watch, I don't even know why I wear a one? Time means nothing to me, but Alice insists it goes with my outfits. "And anyway if we leave now were going to be early!" I said.

"Well were not leaving just yet, but I needed to make sure you look presentable. I mean what kind of sister would I be if I just let you walk out the door and not making sure you match!" She looked at me with a glare. I had to laugh at her, you would think she was joking but in all serious if you don't match she flips out. She may be small, but she is one ferocious pixie when it comes to clothes.

"_I mean really what if he wore a shirt from last week. It would be absolutely devastating." _Alice was thinking.

"Well do I meet your standards Alice?" I asked her while rolling my eyes.

She looked me up and down and then decided that it was good enough. I felt like she was keeping something from me. She was usually hyper and always making sure we looked good but her thought's seemed to be avoiding a certain topic.

"Alright know that we have decided that Eddie boy here is good enough for school can we get moving?" I growled at Emmett. I hated when he called me Eddie.

"Testy, testy little bro. I mean is not my fault if I'm the better looking guy of the group." He said while putting his arm around Rosalie.

"Lets just go shall we!" I said with a sneer. I grabbed my car keys from the table and went into the garage. Emmett, Rose, and Jasper slid into the back seat of my Volvo while Alice sat in the passenger side. I opened my door and slid into the drivers seat. Man how I loved my car. I drove out of the garage and down the gravel road to school.

God I hated school. It was mind numbingly boring. To have to sit in a classroom with hormonal teenagers and listen to there thoughts all day was an absolute nightmare. Sadly to say the teachers weren't much better. I knew who was having an affair and who was secretly gay. You would think it was amusing, but after a while it just gets annoying.

I started shaking my head to try and rid the images of Mr. Windsor thinking of his other male collies from yesterday. I had a feeling today was not going to be a good day.

I tried to focus on my siblings. Jasper just wanted school to be over so he could get back to the war game him and Emmett were playing all night.

Rose was looking at her reflection in the glass window, making sure she looked perfect.

Emmett was thinking of the game as well. Trying to figure out how he could cheat and beat Jasper.

And Alice was…she was blocking me. I looked away from the road and looked at her. She was avoiding my gaze and I didn't understand why?

"Alice, what's going on?" I said

"_I don't know what your talking about Edward?" _She thought, still not looking at me.

"Why are you blocking me? What are you hiding?" I said starting to become annoyed.

"What are you two freaks talking about! Rose make them stop!" Emmett started to fake whine and I rolled my eyes at him. Rose just smacked him on the head. I know he hates when Alice and I have these kinds of conversations, but she started it.

She looked at me, she was beaming and had a huge smile on her face _"oh you just wait and see Edward Cullen" _she thought. That took me of guard, but before I had a chance to ask her what was going on, she interrupted me again.

"Oh look were hear!" She yelled while I pulled into the school parking lot. She jumped out of the car, Jasper had just stepped out of the back seat and Alice threw herself into his arms. I glared at her and she just stuck her tongue out at me.

"This conversation is not over Alice!" I said through my teeth. I hated when she kept things from me. Jasper could sense my frustration and sent me a wave of clam, I just nodded my thanks to him and headed for my first class.

"See you at lunch Edward" a hyper Alice called from behind me.

My morning went by extremely slow. Mrs. Krump, an elderly women who in my opinion should have retired two years ago had asked me to recite what she had just said because she didn't think I was listening. In all truth I wasn't but can you blame me, I have been taught the same material for well over sixty years. Jessica and Lauren kept looking at me, both thinking they should ask me out but didn't know how. There thoughts, especially Jessica's became very graphic involving her and I on Mrs. Krump's desk. Right then I was about to lose it, and Alice was not helping. All morning I had been trying to figure out what she had "seen". Every once in a while I would look into my sister's thoughts but she would always be singing some annoying girl group, or thinking about Jasper in ways I did not want to imagine. Finally lunch came around and I was ready for some answers.

I walked into the lunch room and was quickly met by Emmett and Rose. We all got in line to buy food and walked to our table. Jasper was already there but there was no sign of Alice.

"Where's Alice?" I said a little annoyed. Either she's hiding from me, or has some kind of surprise, I really didn't think this day could get any worse.

"I don't know? She just told me that she would meet us here." Jasper said with a worried look. _"Edward I really don't know anything about this morning, sorry" _he thought. I knew he could feel my annoyance. Just then Alice walked in, grabbed a quick tray of food and walked over to us.

"Alice I want some answers right…wait, are you okay?" I was just about to start yelling at her again but she was looking down at her tray and was slightly pouting.

"_She's feeling frustrated and hurt, what happened?"_ Jasper thought. Emmett and Rose were looking at Alice as well. I was just about to ask her again if she was okay but she broke the silence.

"I just don't understand? She was supposed to be here. She's in my English class and she never showed up. Is there something wrong with my visions? I…I don't know what happened?" she kept mumbling about her vision but was still careful not to show it to me.

"Alice honey what do you mean, explain from the start. What girl?" Jasper was getting worried about her, and was trying to send her calming waves.

As soon as he spoke Alice looked up, but was instantly pulled into a vision.

_I was sitting at my table in Biology with my head down. Mr. Banner was talking about cellular life, when there was a small knock on the door._ Then Alice shook her head and instantly thought of her and Jasper's "plans" tonight.

"Ugh, god Alice you could at least give me a warning!" I said while trying not to gag. "And what was that about, why cant I see it?" I didn't care if she was okay anymore, and judging by her smile I knew she was fine.

"I told you before Edward I have no idea what your talking about?" She said while crossing her arms, and sticking her tongue out at me. I knew I wasn't going to get anymore answers from her. Stupid pixie!

I looked at Emmett and Rosalie, both had given up on the conversation know they knew Alice was fine. I began to sulk like a five year old and needed a distraction from Alice. I thought that maybe if I looked uninterested in her thoughts she might slip up. I began to roam the thoughts of the other students, they were all packing up and getting ready for there next class. I quickly glanced at Alice who seemed to be daydreaming, while Jasper played with her hair. I quickly focused on her thoughts alone, and instantly regretted it.

"Alice!" I growled at her. "Do you mind keeping images of you and Jasper out of your head!" I took my thumb and forefinger and pinched the bridge of my nose, I was about to snap.

Alice and Jasper started laughing, but it was Emmett who just couldn't stay out of a conversation that had to do with sex.

"Hey Eddie, do you mind giving my little sis some privacy. We all know that your curious, and if you weren't such a prude then you wouldn't have to go snooping around!" They all started to laugh. I balled my fist's together and took an unnecessary breath. I slowly rose from my seat and carried my uneaten food to the garbage, and walked to my next class.

"_Oh and Edward, have fun in Biology"_ Alice thought. I froze and turned towards her. She just ignored me and walked with Jasper to there next class.

I didn't know what to expect once I got there. I felt nervous and had no idea why. I walked down the corridor and then took a right, about halfway down I stopped and scanned the thoughts of the students already inside, everything seemed to be normal.

I was now standing face to face with my classroom door. What was Alice keeping from me? And what was going to happen when I open this door?

I took another unnecessary breath and reached for the door handle.


	3. First Day of School

**Author's Notes**_**:**_** Thank You all for the reviews. I cant even begin to tell you how happy I was when I received them!! By all means keep them coming. This Chapter is quite a bit longer. Sadly the next chapter will be up in a few days, I'm going out of town for my b-day! **

**Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!!**

**BPOV**

I could feel myself coming back into my body. I could feel the hard cold laminate flooring underneath me. I had no idea what time it was, or how long I was out but I could feel the sun on my face. I slowly tried to lift my heavy eyelids to look at my surroundings. My eyelashes felt like they were stuck to my skin and it was difficult to pry them apart. I managed to finally open them. I was right about the floor, my body was just inches away from the stairs that I remember flying down not to long ago. The window that was above my head showed the sun was set very high so it must be midday. Wow I thought, I've been out for a while. I suddenly felt a black cloud come over me, why cant Charlie just kill me already. I hated going through this, I hated feeling this kind of pain. If I hated my dad for anything it was allowing me to live. Beating me so bad that it felt like I was dying, but to the point where I was still breathing.

From experience I knew that moving your body to fast hurts a hell of a lot worse, then taking your time and going slow. I moved my fingers first, and then my toes. All ten fingers and toes were good. I moved my head to the side slightly and let out a sharp hiss, I am going to have one hell of a headache.

I began to move my legs, and arms, and decided that I needed to actually stand up.

"Alright you know this is going to hurt, deep breath" I was getting myself ready for the pain that I knew would come. I inhaled a deep breath, and put my palms on the floor.

"Okay 1, 2, 3!" I lifted myself up and instantly grabbed the banister before falling again. I took one more breath and started to drag myself up the stairs to the bathroom. After what seemed like forever I finally made it. I knew Charlie wouldn't be here, he started his job today. My dad, chief of police, ya it had a good ring to it, I thought sarcastically. If only they could see what Chief Swan does in his spare time.

I picked up my clothes that had fell from my hands this morning, and started taking off my pajamas. I bit my lip again holding in my scream's. The blood from last night and now this morning had stuck to my clothing, and I could feel every cut and bruise re-opening.

Without looking at myself in the mirror, I stepped into the shower. The ice cold water that was hitting my back felt like ice picks stabbing me. I quickly scrubbed the dry blood off of my body and watched as the white bottom turned a crimson red.

I stepped out, and started to dry myself off. My legs kept shaking underneath of me from the cold shower but I tried not to notice. I threw a black long sleeve shirt on, and then a navy sweater. I grabbed my baggy blue jeans and a belt and put them both on. The hole that I had made in my belt a few weeks ago was still holding up. Charlie doesn't let me eat a lot, and every few weeks I have to take a knife and make an extra hole so my pants don't slide off of me.

After I was done getting dressed and quickly blow dried my hair, I had to face the mirror. I hate mirrors but in order to cover up the damage I needed to look at myself. Charlie tries his best not to do to much damage to my face, incase people start to ask questions. He's a smart guy, and could get away with almost anything but he's also careful. He also likes to tell me that my face is already damaged because I look like my mother. Its his way of hitting below the belt sort of speak.

Once I took in my appearance it wasn't so bad. I realized that my face looked swollen, but since nobody has seen me before I hardly doubt they would notice. My eyes had black rings around them from not sleeping, and a purple bruise right under my left eye. I had a small gash on my lip and some small yellow bruises on my cheeks. Nothing that I haven't had before, and nothing that couldn't be covered up. I quickly grabbed my cover-up and put on a thick layer. I carefully looked around my neck to make sure there where no obvious marks, or worse hand prints. Everything looked good.

I slowly made my way downstairs trying not to take deep breaths. Some of my ribs felt like they had cracked when I hit the stairs, or when I came in contact with Charlie's boots. I glanced at the clock on the kitchen stove and realized that I needed to get to school. I had missed the whole morning classes and hopefully I could make it to my afternoon ones. I didn't think they would call Charlie if I wasn't there, it was my first day so hopefully they would give me a break. I say hopefully because if Charlie gets a phone call…. I shook my head, I really cant think about that right now.

I grabbed my school bag that I filled last night and locked the door behind me. I slowly made my way to the truck Charlie had picked up for me yesterday. My truck was practically vintage. It was a rusty red 1953 Chevrolet pickup, surprisingly I liked it but I would never tell Charlie that. The deal was he wanted to "act" like a good father to the community, and having his only daughter walk to school seemed to make him think he should get me a vehicle. He picked the truck up last night while I waited at home. He came in, threw the keys in my face and told me I would pay him back every cent once I turned eighteen and was eligible for my mothers money she had left me. Then he thought that he should show me that this truck was not a gift, by yelling and beating me. I woke up a few hours later and crawled to me bed.

The drive to Forks High School didn't take long, however if I had to walk in my condition it would have taken an hour and some. Lunch seemed to be just finishing up, as students were packing up and heading back into the school. Its almost laughable to think that on your first day in a new school, people get worked up making sure they have the right hair, and the right clothes so they can fit in. Me on the other hand want to make sure that on my first day at a new school kids cant see my bruises, cuts, scars, pretty much me. I hide as much as possible knowing full well that I don't belong here. That I'm ugly to look at, and that no one cares. I've been reminded of it many times!

I had to make a small jump out of my truck which hurt like hell, and started making my way to the office. I tried my best not to limp but everything hurt.

I reached the office door, and pulled it open. There was an older lady at the front desk, I slowly made my way to her.

"Um, excuse me miss?" I said quietly trying not to draw to much attention to myself. She looked up then.

"Hello, what can I do for you today?" she said with a fake smile.

"I'm a new student here. Isabella Swan" It came out as question.

"Oh yes, miss Swan, well were expecting you this morning." She tried to say it nicely but I could see was annoyed, like she had been waiting for me all morning.

"Oh, ya well I got held up. I was busy unpacking and lost track of time." I looked down, it wasn't a total lie. I did get held up, however I finished unpacking everything yesterday.

"Yes well lets not make it a habit shall we! Here is your schedule, and a map of the school. You need to get your teachers to sign this form, bring it back to me tomorrow so you can get your morning teachers to sign it as well. And if I were you I would apologize to Mr. Banner your Biology teacher for interrupting his studies. Off you go!" She looked back down at her computer. I nodded and went into the school.

It didn't take me long to find the Biology classroom, it's a pretty small school. I took a deep breath, and winced yelling at myself in my head not to do that. The pain that shot through me was unbearable. I could hear the teacher talking inside and I lightly knocked on the door. After what felt like seconds I was face to face with my teacher. I gulped and tried to make myself shrink, I don't think he noticed. I looked up at him, his face was kind but the fact that he was bigger than me and a male, frightened me.

"Hi, I'm a new student." I whispered and handed him the form. He smiled while sighing the piece of paper. He made his way back into the room, and I reluctantly followed him.

"Everyone this is" He looked at the form again "This is Isabella." I instantly cringed inside. I hated being called Isabella, but I would never correct him. I tried not to notice the stares of all the students, I could imagine what they were thinking.

"Isabella if you could take a seat next to Edward at the back of the room. Edward could you raise your hand please." Mr. Banner said while handing me back the form.

I looked up to see who was raising there hand, and was instantly staring at a pair of golden eyes. My heart sped up as I slowly started walking towards the table still staring into his eyes, like I was in some kind of hypnotic trance.

Then three things happened simultaneously. My foot caught on a desk and I tripped but managed to stay up. However I let out a small gasp of pain from my ribs. Then I looked back into the eyes of my hypnotist and they had changed from gold, to a deep black. I swallowed hard and took my seat.

I was silently shaking. I noticed his hands went into tight fists and just thinking of his eyes, black and furious scared me to death. I understood completely, that he did not want me sitting beside him, and that he was embarrassed to be anywhere near me. I covered my face with my hair and tried to focus on the lecture, but all I kept thinking was how at any moment he was going to hit me. I imagined being knocked out of my chair and thrown across the room. For some reason I imagined him doing more damage then Charlie could ever do.

When the bell finally rang he was the first one out of his seat. He seemed to move faster than I thought possible. I was just out of my seat when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I tried not to yell. I turned around and froze.

"Hi, Isabella right? I'm Mike, Mike Newton." I tried to smile but was panicking. I quickly scanned the room, it was empty besides me and this boy. I tried everything I could do to not start hyperventilating.

"So what class do you have next?" He said, while giving me a big smile. I gulped and looked down at my schedule. I didn't even bother looking at it in the office, I just wanted to get out of there.

"Gym!" I almost yelled it at him. oh god, I thought. How am I supposed to play gym. I cant wear shorts, or t-shirts. I cant even move!

"Hey me too! All walk with you" he picked up his books and waited for me to start walking. I couldn't trust my voice so I just nodded and put one foot in front of the other.

At a pace that was extreme torture for me, we started making our way to gym class. I know that I would have had a melt down trying to figure out what this boy wanted from me but I was to preoccupied with what I was going to about gym. I hardly heard anything Mike was saying to me, but just nodded my head whenever I thought he was addressing me. He looked a little bit muscular but nothing compared to Charlie. However I knew I couldn't out run him because I would trip on my own two feet before I got to the doors.

Thankfully with the panic inside my head I didn't notice the staring and loud whispers. Mike on the other hand seemed to love the attention and smiled at his fellow students. That scared me.

When we finally arrived Mike headed to the men's changing room, while I handed the teacher my form for him to sign. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding when he told me I could just watch for today seeing as I have no gym clothes. I smiled and thanked him, while taking a seat on the benches.

Gym went by rather fast. I had looked more closely at my schedule and didn't think it looked to bad. However I was still panicking about what I was going to do about gym. I kept my eyes on my papers, or the floor. I did not want to make eye contact with anyone. I just wanted to come to school, and then go home, how it's always been. However I could feel the stares of my other classmates and I could hear that boy Mike saying my name, like he knew me. That's weird I thought, most people stay away from me, or just pretend I don't exist.

After class was over I tried to walk as fast as I could to my truck, which really was rather slowly. I was about four feet away when I looked across the other side of the parking lot, to see two pair's of eyes staring directly at me. I froze for just a second and let my eyes travel to each one. These two girls were the most beautiful women I had ever seen. The one had long wavy blonde hair, and was very tall and slender. She wore tight skinny jeans and a low red v-neck shirt, which went great with her pale skin. She met my eye and gave me an evil glare before turning towards a silver car. The other girl had short spiky black hair, and was very petite. She reminded me of a pixie. She also had tight skinny jeans on and wore a pink t-shirt that had some sort of design on it that I couldn't see. Her skin was also very pale, and she wore a small smile on her face. She gave me small wave and I instantly looked away and went to my truck.

When I finally made it home, I almost ran inside of the house. I had no idea what time Charlie would be getting off work and I needed to have his supper on the table before he walked in. I put potato packs in the oven, and grabbed a piece of salmon out of the fridge. Since fish was his favorite, I thought it might make him a bit happy and he might ease off a little tonight. I had just finished setting the table when Charlie walked in.

"My supper better be ready Isabella! Or there will be consequences!" He shouted from the living room.

"Yes sir, its ready" I quietly told him. It went quiet for a second to long and I became nervous. Suddenly Charlie came charging into the kitchen and slapped me across the face. He dragged me into the living room by my hair and threw me down in front of the stairs.

"What the hell is this mess! How many times do I need to tell you that my house needs to be spotless! Who the hell do you think you are leaving it like this!" I was on my hands and knees looking at my dried blood that I had forgot to clean up from this morning.

"Clean this mess up right now!" Charlie shouted at me while kicking me in the stomach a few times.

I quickly got up and grabbed a bucket of soapy water and a rag, and set to work. It was almost laughable that I had thought that fish would make everything better!


	4. Monster

**AN: Hi everyone, I'm sorry I took so long. I've been away, and then my computer thought it would be funny and crashed on me a few times. Anyway here is Chp. 4. I hope you enjoy, and please review! **

EPOV

I slowly turned the knob, and peeked inside of the class. Everything was normal. All the thoughts of the students were the same as any other day. I walked from the door and straight to the back of my lab table without looking at any of them.

Just then Mr. Banner walked into the classroom.

"Good morning class today we will be discussing cellular life….." I tuned him out after that. After so many years of High School, their was nothing they could teach me that I did not already know. I let my own thoughts take over me. I couldn't understand if this was a joke of some sort from Alice or if something was about to happen. Either way I hate surprises.

I pretended to take notes while keeping my head down. I started searching for Alice's thoughts in the school, until I heard an unfamiliar voice from outside the classroom taking a deep breath. I could hear their rapid heartbeat. I heard the soft knock on the door, as did Mr. Banner. He stopped in the middle of the sentence, gave us all an annoying look and walked to the door.

This was it, I thought. This was what Alice was keeping from me.

I was to nervous to look into Mr. Banner's thoughts to see this person. I tried everything I could to focus my thoughts on something else, however I could still hear their conversation.

"Hi, I'm a new student here." She said in a soft whisper, she sounded scared and unsure. So this was what Alice was keeping from me? A new student. Why would any of us care if a new student had moved to forks? I heard Mr. Banner's footsteps coming back inside the classroom, followed by another set.

"Everyone this is" Mr. Banner forgot her name. He cursed himself in his thoughts, then looked down at a sheet of paper that said 'Isabella Swan.' "This is Isabella."

I still refused to look up. I felt myself having an argument inside my own head. Half of me wanted to look up, to find out the big mystery behind this girl. While the other half told me to keep my head down. To stay away from her, and ignore her like I do the rest of the humans.

Just as I was about to cave and look up, I heard my name being called.

"Edward could you raise your hand please." Mr. Banner said.

I raised my hand and looked up. I was instantly met with the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen.

She slowly started making her way towards me and I became transfixed. I just sat there with my hand raised. I'm sure my mouth was open and I was drooling down my shirt but I didn't care. She was staring right back at me and I was lost her in eyes.

And then in less than a second everything changed. She had caught her foot on a desk and her hair swung around her shoulders giving me her full scent. Her scent hit me so hard that I instantly stopped breathing and dug my finger's into the desk. I looked into her eyes for one more second and they were wide with fear. I already knew that my eyes were black and raging with hunger, I didn't care. She was a creature sent from hell to destroy me. To destroy everything that I had worked towards.

She quickly looked away and sat down quietly beside me. The monster was crawling, itching to get out and all I could do was ball my hands into fists and try to concentrate on not murdering this demon.

Mr. Banner began his lesson like there was no interruption. Some of the students went back to listening to Mr. Banner again, and began to take notes. However the remaining students were all thinking about the new girl, Isabella. I did not want to hear her name, or see her face from the other students in my head. I tried to ignore all thoughts that involved this girl, and put as much focus on the lecture as I could.

I still wasn't breathing but just thinking of her scent was driving me over the edge. I couldn't take it anymore. I knew the monster was going to win! My thoughts suddenly over took me, and I was imagining me standing over the brown eyed girl. She was staring up at me with her dead, cold eyes. I had drained every last drop of her blood.

"_EDWARD!!"_ Alice's voice rang through my head and I quickly shook away my last thought. What was I thinking? I could never do that. Not only would I be putting myself in danger but I would be putting my whole family in danger as well.

"_Edward what is the matter with you!"_ Alice's voice rang through my head again, as well as images she had seen of me attacking the new girl.

Alice! Alice knew this was going to happen. She had told me. I had seen the knock on the door from her thoughts. This was her fault, she could have warned me but she didn't. Was this some kind of sick joke?

I was frustrated and raging mad. I quickly got out my silver cell phone from my pocket and sent Alice a text.

_**Are you finding this amusing Alice? Is this what you see! Me becoming the monster that I am and ruining our chances of being semi normal!! **_

I was so built up in a rage, that I could feel my phone being to shake. I had to keep my palm open to make sure I didn't crush it. I concentrated on Alice's thoughts.

"_Edward honestly I didn't see this. I would never do that to you. I don't know what happened, please believe me?" _Now it was her turn to become frustrated. She was pleading with me trying to make me understand.

'_**Focus Alice!' **_I wrote. I was still angry with her but we both couldn't lose our heads.

"_Right I'm so sorry. Okay you need a distraction, something to keep your mind off, well you know." _Alice quickly started to think about going hunting later, but instantly changed tactics when she saw my reaction in her vision. Watching the monster over take her while she hunted, and the hot red blood filling her thirst, was not a good thought to put inside my head. She decided that shopping would help me focus better, in her world you need to be completely focused on clothes.

I tried everything I could to listen to Alice go on and on about her and Jasper's clothes, and how they should start matching one another, the sight was not a pretty one. To say they looked cute was a joke. If this was any other time I would make a mental note to warn Jasper, but now was not the time.

Of all the topics she could have chosen she had to chose fashion, and not only was her trying to distract me not working, I was becoming annoyed as well. I had to try something different, and that's when it hit me. If I did give in and released the monster my family and I would have to move. We would have to start from scratch again. I know my family would eventually understand, well most of them anyway. Rosalie would be furious with me, but just thinking of disappointing Esme and Carlisle gave me enough time to control my anger for the bell to ring.

"Edward, I just texted Jasper and Emmett, I didn't tell them what was going on. I just said that you needed them to meet you outside of your class. They will be waiting for you when the bell rings in 15 seconds. Leave Rose and I the car and we will meet you guys back at the house tonight. Have a good hunt." Alice quickly thought.

Not waiting the few seconds for the bell to ring, I jumped out of my seat and ran a bit to fast for a human out the door.

Just as Alice had said Jasper and Emmett were waiting for me outside the classroom. Both had confused looks on their faces. I could hear Jaspers confused thoughts as he felt my emotions.

"_He's so angry, I've never seen him like this. He's also frustrated and confused. I wonder what happened?" _

"Dude what happened to you? You look like someone who has just been burned at the stake, and coming back for revenge?"Good old Emmett knows just what to say, I thought sarcastically.

I shook my head at them, not trusting my voice just yet and started making my way to the parking lot. I needed to get away from the students, but most importantly away from her. Jasper and Emmett followed closely behind me.

As we started to pass the cars, I took my first breath. I inhaled the fresh air as if it was my life support. I felt a sense of calm, most of it from Jasper I expect but also knowing that I was away from her scent and could finally let go of some of my tension. I was so consumed by my own thoughts that I wasn't paying attention to Emmett

"I call shot gun' Emmett yelled as he ran to my car. I rolled my eyes, and shook my head. I could feel myself becoming annoyed again.

"No Emmett, were not taking the car. Where leaving it for Alice and Rose." I didn't want to talk I just wanted to run as fast as possible. I wanted to feel the wind on my face, and the breeze in my hair. I wanted let out all the emotions that I had been holding inside of me for the last forty minutes.

."Edward, I know you feel annoyed with us, but Alice didn't say much. Can you at least tell us where were going?"Jasper said.

I suddenly felt annoyed with myself. I knew that they would follow me anywhere, no questions asked, but they were both curious and had every right to be. I was not the type of person to act this way, full of rage and hostility. I could hear Emmett thinking the same thing, but I just couldn't talk about it yet, not until I could trust myself completely.

"Were going hunting" I said through my teeth.

"What right now?" Emmett asked slightly whining. He wanted to get back to the house and play some stupid war game with Jasper. He was just about to complain but the look I gave him seemed to be enough to silence him for know.

We slowly started walking towards the forest behind the school. I was controlling myself by listening to the thoughts of the students to make sure no one was watching us. As soon as we hit the trees I ran for it.

I don't know how long I was running for, or where I was. I knew my brothers weren't far behind me and I knew Alice wasn't expecting me back anytime soon. She would explain to the others that I needed to get away for a few hours, and that Emmett and Jasper had come with me. They would all be waiting at the house for me when we returned.

I knew my family trusted me and would give me as much space as I needed. They would also help in anyway they could. Just knowing that I had a few hours to cool down and not have to re-tell what had happened earlier made me feel slightly better.

I suddenly inhaled the scent of a mountain lion, and took off lighting speed in its direction. I slowed down as I made my way towards it, and crouched down ready to tackle my prey. I could feel my muscles begin to tighten, and I licked my lips, ready to taste the hot blood flowing from this creature.

I finally released the monster that had been crawling its way out of me since I inhaled her precious scent. I moved closer to the lion and pounced.


	5. Chapter 5

**EPOV**

As the three of us made our way up the steps to our house, I started to panic. Hunting had calmed me down, made me forget everything that had happened today. Letting the monster take me had made everything much easier, but know it was caged back inside of me and I didn't think I could handle what was to come.

I felt ashamed of what my family would think of me. How I had almost slipped up and ruined what we had built for ourselves. I was also afraid of myself. I had never acted that way before. I have been around humans for over a century, what had happened to my control, how could I let this happen?

Jasper seemed to notice my panic and started to send me calming waves. I turned and gave him a small nod. He seemed to understand what I needed, and led him and Emmett through the front door, leaving me on the porch to collect my thoughts. Although when you can hear what people are thinking and are standing about twenty feet away from six anxious vampires, it's rather hard to collect yourself.

I sat down on the porch and closed my eyes. All I wanted was to be alone again. To not feel this huge weight on my shoulder's. I signed when I heard Alice's footsteps from behind me.

She sat down beside me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"I wanted to talk to you before you went inside. Is that okay?" She asked

I opened my eyes, and looked at her. I started to shake my head, and gave her a fake smile.

"Why do you ask questions when you already know the answers?" I said while rolling my eyes.

She stood up and put out her hand for me to take it. I looked at her, confused.

"I don't want to talk here. Where not going far. The others already know that I wanted to talk to you first, they'll wait."

I slowly sat up and gave her my hand. She took it and we ran off into the woods behind the house. We didn't run far, just far enough so the rest of the family could not over hear.

Alice sat down in the grass, and motioned me to sit across from her. She was being very careful about her thoughts; she clearly didn't want me to see where this conversation was going to go.

I sat across from her with my legs in front of me. I met her eyes, and she gave me a very stern look.

"First of Edward, you are not leaving! If you really believe that this family will watch you go and not follow you, you're dead wrong. Trust me you can ask them yourself."

I bent my head down in shame. I had thought about leaving, that it was the only choice I could give myself. Apparently the rest of my family would not feel the same way.

Alice cleared her throat, and waited until I looked at her again.

" That was the first thing I wanted to clear up but also…look I know you don't want to talk about what happened earlier today, and I'm not going to ask. It's just, well…" She bit her lip.

Alice surprised me, why was she nervous. I had never seen her act like this before. She always knew what was coming; there was no reason for her to be like this. Her being nervous started to make me panic a bit.

"_What if I'm wrong? The way he acted before, I didn't see that coming! No, I can't be wrong, I know it!" she thought_

"Alice you're starting to scare me, what do you want to ask?" I couldn't handle it anymore.

"Alright well, I just want you to think about the first time you saw her. How you felt?" I closed my eyes, why did she have to do this? It didn't take long until I balled my fists. I could feel my eyes turning black with hunger, as I remembered her scent. Alice seemed to notice and quickly moved over to my right side and put her hand on my shoulder.

"No Edward, that's not what I mean!" I opened my eyes and looked at her confused.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." She rushed out.

"How is this hard for you?" I said through my teeth. This was getting us no where.

"Okay, forget about her scent for a minute Edward. Just…just think about the first time you actually saw her. You Edward! Not the so called monster as you put it, but the real you." She looked me in the eyes as if trying to send me some kind of hidden message, but blocking her thoughts so I couldn't read it. She wanted me to figure this out on my own; I just didn't know what that was?

Alice moved away from me and started to hum a song in her thoughts, giving me time to think about what she was going on about. I closed my eyes again, but all I could see was the monster within me. How badly I wanted to hunt her down and taste her blood for myself.

I didn't want to go back to my family and face the shame, but I didn't want to sit here with Alice and play her little game either.

"Alice this is ridiculous, were wasting time! If you want to tell me something then just tell me." I was getting annoyed with her.

"Edward this isn't ridiculous, this is important. And were not wasting time, I told you the other day we can't go to school tomorrow, so you have some time to think about everything. But you're right, let's go back. Maybe after you talk with the family you'll realize it." She said while standing up.

"Realize what Alice?" My patience with her was on very thin ice. I focused on her thoughts again, but she was ready for me.

She shook her head like a toddler _"don't even think about it Edward Cullen, my thoughts are sealed!" _With that she took off running towards the house. I reluctantly followed her.

I let Alice beat me inside, and slowly followed her in. I realized that I couldn't hide from this any longer. My family needed to know, and I had to tell them.

Everyone was already seated at the dinning room table. The only time we ever use it, is when we have family meetings so it wasn't a surprise that they had already took their places. They had all looked up when they heard me approach. Carlisle was at the head of the table, with Esme on his left. Alice was sitting in between Esme and Jasper. Emmett and Rosalie we on the right side, I took my place between Carlisle and Emmett.

They were patiently waiting for me to talk. I knew that Alice didn't tell them anything, just that we needed to have a family meeting, and that I needed some help. At the time I was thankful for her not to tell, however know I had wished they already knew. Everyone but Alice had no idea what was wrong. Jasper could sense it, but all there thoughts came to a blank. I knew I needed to say something.

"Okay….I'm not to sure where to begin?" I looked down at my hands, I couldn't face them.

"_You can do this Edward, just tell them."_ Alice thought trying to encourage me.

"_Edward just take a breath, and tell us. It can't be that bad."_ Carlisle was trying to reassure me, however he wasn't helping.

"_Just spit it out already Edward!"_ I could tell Rosalie was nervous, but she tried to play it off by looking annoyed.

"_What the hell happened to you?"_ Emmett was staring at me, he seemed genuinely scared. He had never seen me act like this, none of them had.

"_Edward its alright just take your time, please tell us."_ Esme was worried about me. She wanted to come over and give me a hug, but thought that I would prefer some space at the moment.

Jasper was just as confused. He was feeling everyone's concerns with his own. His thoughts seemed to match what the rest of them were thinking.

"Please stop!" I put my fingers on my temple. I couldn't handle their thoughts at the moment. I knew letting my frustration out on them was not the right thing to do, but I just couldn't take it.

"I'm sorry! Its just…alright I was sitting in class today and…the smell of her blood." There was a loud gasp from around the table. All their thoughts, besides Alice, had come to the conclusion that I had slipped up. I quickly looked up from the table.

"No, I didn't….. But I wanted too so badly. I had never felt like that before." My hands began to shake. Flashes of me standing over top of this girl drinking her blood had flooded my mind.

"Edward I'm sorry that we all jumped to that conclusion." Carlisle felt ashamed of himself for thinking that. He put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him and gave him a small nod letting him know that it was alright. "Just take a breath and start from the beginning."

"I was sitting in biology class, when there was a knock on the door. We had a new student today….Since I was the only one without a partner Mr. Banner told her to take a seat next to me." I took another unnecessary breath and continued. "She started walking to the table, and tripped….that's when her full scent hit me." I had to stop for a minute. Thinking about her scent, and the shame of what had almost happened was too much.

"I think I should leave for a while." Right after I said this my mind was swimming with six panicked voices.

"_Dude, don't go. I'm sure there's another way." _Emmett was thinking of different ways to make me stay. Most of them involved holding me down, or tying me to a rock.

"_Maybe I should go with him. If he almost slipped up, I'm sure I would." _Hearing Jasper think this made me feel horrible. It's true that he has the hardest time around humans, but for him to think about leaving, without even trying, was wrong.

"_Trust a low life human to interfere in our lives. Well I've seen her, I'm sure I can make her leave town." _Rosalie started laughing. I looked up and shook my head in protest.

"_Edward I'm sure we can figure something out. You don't need to rush into anything. Please don't go." _To hear Esme pleading with me not to leave the family was the hardest.

"_I told you not to say anything." _Alice was sitting in her chair, looking smug.

"If that's what you feel is best Edward. However why don't you finish telling us what happened, and maybe we can think of an alternative plan." I shook my head at Carlisle. He was right I should finish telling them.

"While I was sitting there I tried to focus on anything else but I couldn't. If it wasn't for Alice." Right then I froze. I locked eyes on Alice. I had completely forgotten about her vision. I wanted answers from her earlier but she wouldn't give them to me. She knew this was going to happen.

"You knew!" I said through my teeth. Jasper sensed my anger and held Alice close. He tried to send me calming waves, but I was wound up so tightly nothing seemed to work. My hands gripped the bottom of my chair. The room suddenly went quite.

"What's he talking about Alice?" Carlisle was looking between me and Alice, as were the rest of the family.

"Edward I didn't know that was going to happen." Alice looked frustrated again.

"But you knew something was going to happen!" I could hear the metal in the chair begin to crack.

"Yes Edward, something!" She gave me that look again.

"_Edward your missing part of the story. You said that Mr. Banner told her to take a seat next to you, and then she tripped. What happened before she tripped?" _Alice thought with a knowing smile. _"Think Edward!"_

I focused on my own thoughts and went back to this afternoon. I remember being nervous of what Alice had said to me. Then there was the knock on the door, she began talking to Mr. Banner and then followed him inside. I still didn't look up, I remember having an inner battle with myself to look at her but then my name was called, and I finally had.

Suddenly I was cut of mid thought by Alice. She was looking into a pair of deep brown eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. I kept my own eyes closed, I could hear the whisper's of the rest of the family, but was only concentrating on Alice. I had seen these eyes once before. I had become mesmerized by the piercing dark brown that was walking towards me in Biology class.

Alice cut of her thoughts; I opened my eyes to look at her.

"_Do you understand know Edward?" _ I didn't know what to say. I was so lost in my own thoughts and so confused by these strange emotions. Jasper quickly met my eye; he seemed just as confused as I was.

"Alice I want to talk to you. Alone please." Alice was halfway out of her seat before I had time to finish my sentence.

As we made our way to the front door, I could see the rest of our family's thoughts following us. I could also hear their panic.

"All be right back, I promise." I said this while looking at Esme. She was so scared that I wasn't coming back, and gripping Carlisle's hand very tightly. When I said this she loosened his hand, and they both gave me a small smile. Carlisle gave me a grateful look, and was trying not to show Esme just how tightly she was holding onto him.

Alice and I ran back to the small spacing were we first talked not to long ago. We sat on the grass facing one another, neither one of us talking. She was waiting for me to begin, and I was waiting to get my head around what had just happened. I could not understand the strange emotions running through me. I still felt ashamed and angry but there was something new, something I had never felt before.

As I was lost in my own thoughts, I realized that Alice was still sitting bedside me. I knew she wanted to help me, but neither one of us had spoken in a while. I could see the sun rising, and I knew that I needed to talk, or better yet get some answers.

"Alice, I want to see the vision you had, the one that you were hiding from me yesterday. I think I've earned it." I didn't mean for the last part to come out as a hiss.

Alice closed her eyes in concentration. She was looking ahead for my reaction. I could see myself in her thoughts. I was sitting in the same spot that I was now, however my mouth was hanging open, and my eyes looked dazed. I was clearly in shock.

Alice opened her eyes, and looked me over; she was trying not to smile. "Well it definitely could be worse." She said, she couldn't hold back any longer and started laughing.

I closed my eyes and intertwined my hands together; I really have had enough of this pixie today. I did promise Esme I would be back, however I said nothing about Alice returning.

My thoughts were cut off by Alice. I was sitting on our coach in the living room; Carlisle and Jasper were sitting to my left, discussing a recent paper about World War 1, while Rosalie was sitting on Emmett lap in the chair across from me. My head had snapped up when I head a car approaching, and soon enough it was in front of our house with the engine shut off. I could hear two girls playfully arguing, one was Alice, but the other I didn't recognize.

Suddenly the door swung open, and standing in the door frame was the most beautiful women I had ever seen. My eyes slowly traveled up her body starting from her feet. She was wearing a pair of flat black boots that ended just below her knees. She had on a pair of dark skinny jeans that were tucked inside her boots. She was wearing a light dark blue sweater that made her pale skin glow. She had a heart shaped face, with prominent cheekbones, and full lips. Her long brown hair travelled halfway past her collarbone. Finally my eyes saved the best part for last; I was staring at a pair of deep brown eyes, which seemed to glow when she meant my own.

"Edward help, she's making me go out again. All die if I have to be dragged to another mall! Save me please." She had put her hands together to look like she was praying, while taking another step inside she caught her toe and tripped. I ran to her in a flash and caught her in my arms in no time, while the rest of the family just laughed. I picked her up and carried her to the couch placing her on my lap still wrapped in my arms.

"Don't be so dramatic Bella!" Alice had yelled from the garage.

"Don't worry love; I get you for the rest of the day." I said while kissing her forehead.

"No, don't you get me for the rest of eternity." She said with a smug look, while I just rolled my eyes.

"Bella what are you doing? Hurry up and eat, I want to be in Port Angeles by two." Alice walked in carrying an armful of shopping bags, while giving Bella a stern look. Jasper looked at Bella and gave her a small wink, before running to Alice picking her up in his arms and carrying her up the stairs to their bedroom.

"I know what you're trying to do Jazz, and she's not getting off that easy. No sister of mine will wear the same clothes twice." Alice was yelling from upstairs. The rest of the family burst into laughter.

"Bella, I made you some lunch if you're hungry?" Esme walked from the kitchen and sat in the vacant spot left by Jasper.

Just then her stomach began to rumble, and I picked her up and placed her on her feet. I led her into the kitchen with my arms wrapped around her waist. Once out of sight from my family she spun around and brought her arms around my neck, and kissed me.

"Get a room!" Emmett yelled from the living room. I heard a loud slap, which could only be from Rosalie's hand hitting the back of Emmett's head.

Bella broke away from the kiss and started laughing, while I let out a low growl. She shook her head and kissed me once more on the lips, before making her way to the soup and sandwich Esme had made her.

I don't know how long I sat there when Alice's vision was done but she seemed to have had enough.

"Edward?" Alice was tapping on my right shoulder. "Edward that's it, that's all I've seen."

My mind finally came back to me. I didn't know how to process what I had just seen. I definitely was in shock.

"I know it's a lot, but can't you see it? Can't you see that you and Bella are meant to be together?" Alice was trying to hide her excitement, but she was doing a really bad job at it.

"Alice I don't understand?" Was the only thing I could say at that moment.

"What don't you understand Edward? The two of you are so deeply in love, look how happy you were. I've never seen you, or even the rest of our family look so happy." Alice stopped hiding her excitement and began jumping up and down. "I can't wait to have her as my sister!" That seemed to knock me back to my senses.

"No Alice, she's human. How can I be around her, let alone kiss her, when the last time I saw her I wanted to kill her?" My shock was turning into frustration and anger again.

"I don't know what happened yesterday, but it looks like you found a way to avoid killing her. Honestly Edward if you love someone you would do anything to protect them."

Did I love Bella? Could what I've seen really come true? I knew never to bet against Alice, but this was a long shot.

"Looks like you're staying." Alice squeaked, interrupting my thoughts yet again.

"Am I?" I don't remember making that decision.

"You're curious Edward. All bet what you saw makes you happy, too bad Jazz wasn't here to prove my point." She whispered the last part. I just rolled my eyes at her. "Don't you want that Edward? Don't you finally want someone you can share your life with?"

I've never thought about it. I've never went out and looked for a mate, someone you could share your passions, your dreams with. My family was all that mattered to me, have I really found that person? Could it really happen like that, so easy? Someone who just walks into a room looks deep into your eyes and you realize she's the one? It all seems a bit cliché, but at the same time, if this was it, if Alice was right, did I really want to give that up?

My emotions went into haywire again. I tried to concentrate on Alice's vision from the start, but all that my mind could think about was kissing her in the kitchen. The fact that she was still human and she knew what my family and I were was a complete shock, but the real shock was how easy it all had seemed. I couldn't make sense of it, it just didn't seem real.

"What if you're wrong Alice? What if the next time I see her I kill her? Or what if I realize she is the one, but she doesn't feel the same? How could she like someone who isn't even human?" I couldn't look Alice in the eyes as I said this.

"Edward look at me!" She waited until I meant her eyes. "First off I'm not wrong; in fact I'm never wrong!" She said while crossing her arms. "The vision's solid Edward, and she doesn't just like someone, she love's someone. Do you honestly believe that she may not love you? You saw the vision; she practically couldn't keep her hands off of you!" She said while laughing.

"Alice some maturity wouldn't kill you, would it?" I said through my teeth. However I was trying to hold back a smile, which she seemed to pick up on.

"You're right sorry. Bella love's you, she may not know it now but she will. And when that time comes you will just have to ask her how she can love someone who isn't human, as you put it."

Damn, I hated to admit it but Alice seemed to have an answer for everything. However she did not answer my first question. The one question I needed answers too, and that scared me. I took an unnecessary breath and asked again.

"Alice, what happens if I kill her the next time I see her?" I whispered to her.

Alice was jumping up and down, she knew that I was losing the battle and soon enough she would win. She was so excited to meet Bella that I had to repeat my question.

"Well think about it Edward, you managed to find a way to be around her eventually. I mean maybe you just need to get use to her scent, that way you can control yourself while you're around her. Plus you have six other people who love you Edward and only want the best from you, we are all here to help." She shrugged it away, like controlling the monster inside of me was no big deal.

"Well we have almost everything sorted, and it's only past midday." She said sarcastically. "I think we should head back to the house, and all go for a hunt. That way you won't be as hungry when you see her tomorrow." She stood there waiting for me to get to my feet.

"What do you mean almost everything sorted out?" I said as I stood beside her.

"Well, do you want to tell the rest of the family that you fell for a human, or should I?" Shock hit me again. Alice started laughing uncontrollably before taking off towards the house. I shook my head and followed her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone sorry this chapter took so long, hopefully the next one will be up shortly. Please review and let me know what you think so far. Thanks for reading, and here it is. **

**BPOV**

"Damn it!" I smacked my hand across the hand dryer, a searing pain went through my arm, and left a stinging feeling.

I could hear the rain pouring down outside as I sat in the girls locker room. I would have liked to walk into school with dry hair but seeing as its raining already and the hand dryer isn't working, it looks like all be walking into school like a drowned rat again.

Suddenly all the lights came on around me, I quickly covered my mouth to hold back my scream**. **I was use to showering at school, I was less afraid to shower here than I was at home. However I still get jumpy and only take about a two minute shower if I can help it. I do the same thing that I did in the last schools I've been to. I find out where the showers are, then see what time the school unlocks the doors in the morning. Most teachers don't show up until about forty minutes before any students come, and no student ever comes to school early.

As all the lights were done turning on, that was my signal to hurry up and finish what needed to be done. As I picked myself up off the floor, I was careful to put my weight on my right side, which still caused a lot of pain, especially from my ribs, I am sure some of them are broken. Between the other night and yesterday, lets just say that Charlie had a bit to much fun.

I walked towards the mirror and took out my foundation. I applied some to my left cheek which was healing fairly quickly, and under my eyes. Under each eye were huge dark bags, I don't sleep very much, that is unless I pass out from the pain, which surprisingly doesn't make you feel very refreshed the next morning. Next I looked at my neck, it was mixed with the colors red, purple, and green. Charlie really likes to grab and choke me there, he says he likes to watch as he squeeze's the life out of me. Luckily for me I have a turtle neck that covers most of it, but I still had to add some foundation around the edges of my shirt. However foundation doesn't cover everything, so I had to leave my soaking hair down, which was now dripping down my back and into my cuts.

As soon as I was done with the foundation I put it back into my bag, and walked away from the mirror, I don't like to look at the damage.

I grabbed my bag and slowly made my way out of the locker room. I opened the door as quietly as I could and peeked my head out, no one was around. I tried to walk as quickly and quietly through the small hallway and out the exit doors. Once outside I headed in the direction that I had parked my truck. I hid it about five minutes away from the school down a dirt road, so no one would notice that I was here.

When I finally made it to my truck, I jumped inside and put the heat on. I was freezing, my hair was soaked, and all my clothes were sticking to me and weighing me down. I felt exhausted, the five minute walk seemed like hours and the rain felt like needles digging into my flesh. I grabbed my towel out of my bag and tried to towel dry my hair and clothes, but it didn't help, and my truck was so old that the heat was really cold air coming from the vents. I closed my eyes, not thinking about anything and just sat there enjoying the peace and quiet for awhile.

When I finally opened my eyes it had stopped raining, I looked at the clock and realized that I needed to head back to school. I pulled out of the dirt road and onto the main one towards the school.

By the time I drove in most of the parking lot was full, I had to park farthest away from the school doors, right next to a small green car. I checked my face in my rear view mirror to make sure that my foundation was still covering everything that needed to be covered. I pulled the top of my turtle neck as high as it could go on my neck, and made sure my sweater was pulled as far down my waist as possible and that my sleeves covered everything from the edges of my fingers**.** To anyone who was paying attention it would just look like I was a drowned rat who was freezing, which was half true.

I took two deep breaths, took the keys out of the engine and opened my truck door. I slowly slid out of my seat, not wanting to scream from the pain that my ribs were causing me. I put my two feet on the ground and almost lost my balance, however what I managed to do next made me scream and curse inside my head. I had dropped my car keys on the ground, and now they were half under my truck. I turned around and faced the inside of my truck.

"How stupid to can you be?" I whispered between my hands. I was debating to just leave them there, and come back for them later when no one would watch the struggle it would take to get on my hands and knees. I could already feel the pain running through me as I would have to bend down and pick them up.

I felt a slight wind from behind me but shrugged it off as nothing.

"Sorry did you need some help?" It was almost like a whisper from behind me but I still caught every word. My mind went blank and I become completely frozen, my hands still on my face. My heart started to race, and I could feel myself slowly losing oxygen.

I slowly shook my head back and fourth, hopefully showing him that I was fine, but still not daring to look at him.

"Here you dropped these." Not realizing what he was saying I panicked, why wasn't he leaving?

'_Please leave, please leave' _I kept repeating in my mind.

I turned my head towards him, and through the slits in my hand's I could see that his hand was stretched out towards me. I carefully took my hands off my face, and looked at his hand, their sitting in the center of his palm were my keys.

My hand began to shake as I reached for the them, I was so scared to touch him, and yet so grateful that he had picked them up for me, but I knew there was some sort of catch for helping me, there always is.

I didn't want to look at his face, I was entirely focused on the small set of keys. My hand was still shaking as it slowly moved closer towards them, but suddenly he closed his palm and I pulled back afraid he might hit me. He tightened his hand that still held my keys, and then hovered onto my open palm, and carefully dropped them without touching me and walked away.

"Thank You" I whispered knowing he wouldn't here. I grabbed my book bag and headed into school.

The first two classes, math and social, went by fairly quickly. I like sitting in the back of the class and focus just on the teacher and the work, I find that it helps to keep your mind off other things.

When I walked into English I found the same empty seat in the far corner where I sat yesterday, which is perfect because on one side there is the wall, and the other is an empty desk. I placed my books on my desk and opened to my notes were we left of yesterday.

"Hi, I'm Alice" I didn't even here anyone sit down beside me.

"You must be Bella?" How did she know my name?

"Isabella" I didn't mean for it to come out.

I hated the name Isabella, and I know I am never supposed to correct people but it just slipped out. I looked up from my desk and saw a pair of confused golden eyes starring back at me. She looked my age, very petite, and very beautiful. She had short spiky black hair, very pale, and a smile dancing on her face. I was amazed by her eyes, they seemed warm and inviting.

"Sorry, you don't like to be called Bella?" She seemed confused by this. She tilted her head to the side like she was thinking about something, I realized she was waiting for my answer. Luckily the teacher walked in and began talking and everyone fell silent to listen.

I didn't want to seem rude, I wanted to answer her question but how was I supposed to explain why I hate and also love the name Bella to a total stranger. It would end up revealing my darkest secrets, I couldn't do it!

I kept my eyes down throughout the lecture, taking as many notes as possible. As the class went by I swear I could feel eyes watching me, and I was sure they were coming from Alice. After that I couldn't concentrate anymore. Maybe I took her seat, and she was mad, or maybe she liked sitting alone in the back, I know I do. However when she introduced herself she seemed happy, maybe a bit to happy, but didn't come off as threatening?

'_Way to go Bella, someone try's to be nice to you and all you do is correct them!' _I thought.

Maybe I should try to fix it, ask her a question about herself. However having friends, if that's what it could be, would be complicated, its better to just ignore people like I have been doing my whole life than to put anyone in danger.

The bell rang and everybody jumped out of their seats for lunch. I looked up from my desk, and over half the class were already gone. I heard a small cough coming from beside me, and there still sitting beside me was Alice, who seemed to be waiting for me.

"Are you going to sit here all day?" She laughed, and gracefully got out of her seat.

I carefully put my weight on my hands as I pushed myself onto my feet, and then grabbed my books off my desk. Alice was slightly bouncing up and down waiting for me at the classroom door.

"Come on silly it's lunch time. You can sit with me and my family if you like, they'd love to meet you." I couldn't understand what was going on. Why did this girl want to hang out with me? We were completely opposites, she was absolutely gorgeous, extremely happy, and judging by her clothes very fashionable.

We started walking in the hall which was fairly empty now. Alice thankfully was meeting my pace, but I was trying to walk a bit faster so she wouldn't notice anything odd.

"Um, I'm actually not going to the cafeteria, I um…need to go to the library." It barely came out as a whisper, but judging by her face she heard me and she seemed disappointed.

"But aren't you hungry?" She gave me a piercing look like she could see right through me.

"No, I had a big breakfast" I lied.

The truth was I was starving, or I assume I would be starving, but when you haven't ate in about three days you don't feel hungry anymore. I felt exhausted and just thinking of having to sit and try to eat made me feel even more exhausted.

We were now in the main hall, were the cafeteria was to the left, and the library further down the right. We stopped walking and I turned and gave Alice a small smile, she returned it but she still seemed disappointed.

"Are you sure? Cant you go to the library after school?" It seemed like she was almost begging me to come with her, which made me even more nervous of her.

I shook my head " I'm sorry" and with that I started walking towards the library.

"If you change your mind, you know where to find me." She half yelled it down the hallway. A few students who were on there way to lunch looked at Alice and then back at me.

Lucky for me Alice doesn't know that the library is closed during lunch hour. I turned down another hallway and found the girl's bathroom that know body seems to use. I walked inside and, went into the same stall that I was in yesterday and sat down. I grabbed Wuthering Heights from my bag and opened to where I left off. My mind began to drift off into my book as I waited for the bell to ring for next class. This is lunch period for me, and for the rest of the school year.

**EPOV**

As I was making my way back towards the school, I couldn't help thinking that I shouldn't be here. I thought maybe if I went to school and just ignored her everything might be okay. Well that didn't work out. From the moment I got out of my car I watched her. I saw her drop her keys and instantly ran over and picked them up. I held my breath and concentrated on the keys in my hand, but once I saw her hands begin to shake I knew that I had lost her trust. The look of fear in her eyes, and the pounding of her heart, told me she had not forgotten our first meeting. After I handed her her keys, I needed to get away for awhile. I waited in my car until I was sure all the students were in the school and made my way into the forest and ran for it.

Alice kept reassuring me this morning that everything would work out, and that I shouldn't be afraid, but the truth was I was terrified. I don't even know how I managed to leave our house. I told the others to take Rosalie's car, Jasper wanted to stay behind and help but I told him that I wasn't even sure if I would make it to school today. They were all worried about me in there own way, however no one but Alice knew the whole story.

Alice had promised me last night that she wouldn't tell the rest of the family on one condition, that she was allowed to talk to Bella, I reluctantly agreed. Its not that I wanted to lie to them its I just that I needed to explain it to myself, before I could try to explain it to any of them.

I saw the school through the tree line and slowed my pace down, lunch was just finishing and students were getting last minute things from there lockers and heading off to there next class. I waited for the first bell to ring, and then made my way into the school and into Biology class. As soon as I hit the classroom door I held my breath, it wasn't a difficult thing to do but its was very annoying.

And there she was. Her face was hidden by her brown hair, and her head was bent down towards the desk. She seemed to be concentrating on writing something down. I paused only for a minute and then made my way to our table. I noisily pulled back the chair and sat down, she instantly stopped writing and froze. I wanted to make things right between us. I was just about to talk to her when the teacher walked in and began the lesson.

"Good afternoon class, today we will be doing a pulse and blood pressure lab. So I need you or your partner to come up and grad a work sheet." Mr. Banner held out a stack of paper in his hand.

I looked over at Bella, who was still bent over the table but looked like she was about to get out of her seat.

"I got it." I said, making sure I didn't breathe out as I said this. I jumped out of my chair, and grabbed the handout.

"So follow the instructions on the handout, and please when you are out in the hallways for the exercise keep your voice's down, there are other classes going on." Mr. Banner was saying, while looking at a few students in particular.

Everyone began immediately, they were all excited that they could talk freely in class today, however at my table Bella still hadn't looked up.

"So it says we need to place our first and second finger in the groove between the radius bone and the tendon at the wrist and press lightly." I tried to sound enthusiastic but calm at the same time. I just wanted her to look at me.

"I'm Edward by the way, Edward Cullen." I didn't put my hand out to shake, but I did stare at the side of her head until she looked at me.

"Um Isabella." She whispered, but finally she lifted her head and looked at me, our eyes met for just a second and then she looked at the front of the room. I could have sworn Alice called her Bella. And that's when I realized it. I had been so scared to come near her or even think about her that I didn't even notice. I couldn't hear her thoughts. I panicked. I scanned the room and could hear what every student was thinking, I went further and heard everyone in the school, but not her.

"How are you two coming along?" Mr. Banner said from behind us. He broke through my thoughts and I looked at Bella, I saw her jump slightly in her chair.

"Sorry Isabella didn't mean to scare you." Mr. Banner said while lightly laughing.

As I scanned the room I noticed that we were the only two who weren't focused on there partner, whether they were doing there assignment or talking of future plans for the weekend.

I needed to know why I couldn't read her thoughts, have some kind of understanding, but right now was not the time. I would have to talk with the rest of the family, which meant I would have to come clean, something I didn't want to do right away.

"Where just getting started Mr. Banner." I looked at Bella while I was talking to him, she looked terrified.

"Good well then get going you don't want to be too far behind." _Like Edward could ever be behind in my class. I just hope she can keep up with him. _Mr. Banner thought while walking away to yell at some students for begin to loud.

"So Isabella, should we get started?" I tried to get her attention back to me. She looked my way but would not look me in the eye.

"All go first if you like? It's says we need to count the number of beats in 10 seconds. Would you mind counting to 10 for me?" Not that I had a pulse to begin with, I was just going to give her a decent number so that it would show my blood pressure was average. I felt like I was slowly going crazy because I could not read her thoughts, I needed her to talk, or at least look at me so I could have some understanding from her.

She nodded her head and I pulled my sleeve up and placed my first and second finger where it said to from the assignment. I waited until she told me to start.

"okay go." She whispered, she looked down at my wrist but then looked away quickly. I couldn't tell if she was still frightened of me, or if she was just bored with the assignment.

I counted to 10 in my head and waited until she told me to stop.

"That's 10 seconds." She said.

"Alright I counted 12 beats. So it says to multiply that by 6. So that would be"

"72" She interrupted. If my hearing wasn't amazing, I wouldn't have caught it, actually I wouldn't be able to catch half of what Bella says, but I looked at her and gave her smile.

"Ya that's right, so my is pulse is 72." She looked absolutely shocked that I had heard her. I wrote it down in the chart, and then looked back at Bella.

"Your turn." I gave her another small smile, I felt like an idiot. If I knew what she was thinking maybe this wouldn't be so difficult. I wanted to have a conversation with her, to understand her better, to understand Alice's vision, but instead I'm sitting here waiting to count to 10 in my head.

Bella was staring at her wrist, I could hear her heart starting to race, and her hands began to shake. I didn't understand what was happening to her. She put her left arm under the table and pulled up her sleeve just a bit to place her two right fingers on the appropriate spots. She tried to cover her wrist with her sleeve, but I already saw what she apparently did not want me to see.

On her left wrist was a big dark purple bruise that looked like it went down her arm, and laying in the middle of her bruise was a deep scar that cut across her veins. I took a deep breath in without realizing and her full scent hit me. She smelled like freesia's, it was mouth watering. I quickly held my breath again, and placed my hands together in my lap. Controlling the monster inside wasn't as difficult as the last time, but still unpleasant. I guess Alice might be right after all. I managed to control myself before I said anything.

"All count to 10 when your ready." This time I stared at the side of her head. I wanted her to look at me, I wanted to read her eyes. But she wouldn't look up, her head was to the floor, and her hair was covering the sides of her face.

"Ready" She whispered. My mind was racing. Know body seemed to know anything about Bella Swan, only that she just moved here a few days ago, and that her father was the new police chief in town. I needed to know. I needed to know how she got that bruise, and most importantly why she had that scar.

"That's 10" I said as I tried to show no emotion in my face.

"Would you like me to write it down for you?" The assignment was right in front of me, and judging by her reactions this afternoon, there was no way she would grab it away from me.

"Oh, um, alright, it was um, 13." She was lying. Why would she lie about that? I wrote down 78 in the chart next to my 72.

"So it looks like we have to do some exercises, it says push ups, jumping jacks, or running up the stairs. So would you like to head into the hallway now?"

I heard her take a deep breath in and saw her hands turn into fists. She just nodded and began to slowly get out of her chair. She started to walk down the row of tables, but I was frozen in my seat. As I watched her get out of her seat, and make it down the isle, I realized that this beautiful women was in pain. Everything came crashing down.

As I looked up to see Mr. Banner at his desk, I realized that it wasn't just me that Bella was scared off, it was him as well. The way she had jumped when he came behind us, the look in her eyes when he was talking directly to her, she wasn't just terrified of me, she was terrified of everyone.

Bella turned around to see if I was behind her and our eyes met for just a second. She looked scared, lost, and above all dead. Like there was no hope left for her. Even though I had only seen her full face for a moment, I saw what I had missed. She had a cut on her left cheek that was hidden under foundation, and bags under her eyes. She looked absolutely exhausted. She directed her eyes away from mine, and I acted like I had lost my pen for a minute. I grabbed the assignment and walked towards her.

As I walked behind her I noticed her figure. Her baggy clothes tried to hide the fact that she was dangerously underweight. She wore layer's of clothing that tried to hide every bit of skin. She started coughing, and I remembered this morning how wet she was when she stepped out of her truck, even though it wasn't raining.

By the way she was walking she looked severely hurt. She was putting most of her weight on her right side but it seemed to cause her more pain. I quickly picked up my pace so that I could walk beside her. I felt like I needed to protect. How ironic that just a few hours ago I wanted to protect her from myself, and know I needed to stay to protect her from something I didn't know yet. What had happened to this small fragile girl?

We had reached the bottom of the stairs in the hallway. I saw Bella take a long look at each step, probably trying to figure out how she was going to run up and down each one.

"I can go first if you like." Her voice sounded dead, I didn't understand why she was doing this.

"Actually I'm not feeling very well, I wouldn't normally ask this, but do you mind if we just skip this one and write down an answer. I don't think I could handle doing any kind of exercise at the moment." I gave her a smile, and a started to laugh a bit, like I was embarrassed. What she did next caught me off guard. She looked directly at me and smiled, it was a small smile but it made my dead heart skip a beat. Her face seemed to almost light up, like I had lifted a small weight off of her.

However not every happy moment can last forever. Mike Newton came charging down the stairs and almost knocked Bella to the floor. He crashed into her left side and fell on his hands and knees. The sound that came from Bella's lips made me want to cry.

Mike jumped up and started to apologize, at the same time he was thinking that this would be the perfect time to ask her to dinner. That he felt so bad for almost knocking her down that he needed to make it up to her, that way she couldn't say no.

Bella seemed to be in her own world, so I gave her a moment. Mike had not heard her silent scream, but it was still ringing in my ears.

"Bella are you alright?" I tried to make my voice soothing, trying to hide the panic that was going on in my head.

I didn't want to touch her incase she jumped back frightened, but I wanted to move closer to her incase she fainted. I needed to make sure that I was capable of being close to her so I slowly breathed in a small hint of her scent. I realized that at this moment the monster inside of me was still caged, all I cared about was how Bella was.

I inched closer towards Bella who had her eyes closed and was biting her lip. I stopped when I thought I was close enough to catch her without anyone suspecting anything, and that if Bella opened her eyes she wouldn't be scared.

She shook out her hands by her sides and then pulled them towards her face. I quickly looked her over to see if Mike had done anymore damage. I roamed my eyes starting from her feet and made my way up, Bella took her hands and pulled her hair away from her face, when my eyes hit her neck I froze. Useless air caught in my lungs and I held back a choke, my hands instantly became fists. I started to panic. Just above her turtleneck was a bruise hidden by foundation, it seemed to wrap around her whole neck, the mixed colors showed that some areas were slowly healing, and some fairly knew. And there sitting below her right ear was a bruise the shape of a thumb print. Someone had done this to her.

"Bella?" This time I didn't try to hide the fear in my voice. It must have got her attention because she opened her eyes.

"I'm fine." Her voice was calm, but dead. She looked at Mike but not meeting his eyes, and gave him a weak smile. Mike was just about to ask her out for dinner, when Mr. Banner announced that we hand in our assignment's.

I stared at Bella who looked up at me, and our eyes met. I wanted to send her a message with my eyes telling her that I was here for her, that she could tell me anything, that I would protect her, and that she didn't need to be afraid anymore.

It felt like hours had gone bye just getting lost in those deep brown eyes, but it was only a few seconds. The bell rang interrupting us, and Bella quickly looked away, and walked back into class to get her books.

I followed behind her writing in our final answers on the assignment and handing it to Mr. Banner. I collected my books and made my way out of class and into the hall. I watched as Bella slowly made her way down the hall, all I could think of was how many more bruises were hidden, how many more scars?


	7. Chapter 7

**EPOV**

"So what do I do know?" I asked them desperately. My family was looking at me with great concern. I sat down between Esme and Carlisle and thought of today's earlier events.

After Biology I had sat in my car and watched Bella through the minds of the other students. When I saw her walk into gym class I almost lost it. I had jumped out of my car and was half way to the class when I froze and realized I didn't know what to do. All I wanted was to pull her out of class and drive her to see Carlisle so he could help her, but I knew she would never come. I also knew that there was no way of dragging her out, not only would I never gain her trust, but I'm sure I would cause her more physical damage.

As I walked back to my car I watched her. The class had separated into four teams and began playing volleyball. Once I knew the signs that she was in pain and how she hid it from the others, it was harder to watch. Every time she winced in pain, when the ball came towards her, I would cringe in my seat. I sat in horror as I watched another team mate hit the ball with the side of her arm and directed it off course, right into Bella. My hands gripped the steering wheel, and it took every ounce of control not to rip it off.

I decided to call Carlisle at work and ask him to come home when school had finished, I couldn't wait any longer. I knew Esme would already be home, and Alice, Rose, Jasper and Emmett would drive back to the house when school was done, seeing as we had already hunted not to long ago. I stayed in my car and waited until I saw Bella coming out of school limping slightly with the other students. She didn't talk to anyone, or even look up from the ground, she just let her feet carry her to her truck. It was like she had done this a thousand times, like she was some kind of pro at hiding her pain, at hiding herself.

As I watched her drive out of the parking lot and onto the main road I couldn't help but think how I was going to let her trust me? How was I going to ask her to let me in when I myself would have to hide certain things from her? These questions and the deep concern I had for Bella, brought me back to my house and in front of my family.

They had all been waiting for me. It turns out that when I called Carlisle and asked him to come home after school, he had told the staff members that he needed to come home right away for family reason, him and Esme had been waiting for me ever since. Alice had told Rose, Jasper, and Emmett that they needed to get back to the house right after school and not to bother me in the parking lot if they saw me. I had to thank Alice for that one. I didn't need anyone knocking on my car window while I thought about Bella's pain. They were all sitting at the dinner table waiting for me to arrive.

At first it was hard to talk. I didn't know where to start, and it felt like déjà vu all over again. But once I began telling my family of Bella's bruise, the scar I saw, and the silent scream that had escaped her lips, I couldn't stop. My family listened intently. They never interrupted me verbally but each one was thinking very hard. When I had come to the part of when I realized I couldn't read her mind, all of them seemed to want to ask me questions. Carlisle had put his hand up from stopping them, and allowed me to continue my story uninterrupted. I was thankful for it, if I had stopped then I don't know if I would have been able to continue.

When I was done I collapsed in the empty chair next to Esme and covered my face in my hands.

Everyone was taking in what I had just said, no one seemed to want to voice out loud just yet so I listened to what they were all thinking. Alice was the hardest to hear. She kept going over her conversation that she and Bella had had that morning, looking for signs that she seemed to miss. She blamed herself for not seeing this happening.

"Don't Alice" I said through my hands. It was bad enough blaming myself and feeling guilty of how I reacted the first time I had seen her. If only I could have controlled myself better, instead I scared her even more and trying to repair it seems like precious time she might not have.

"How can I not blame myself Edward. I never saw this, any signs that she might….might be." Alice started to dry sob into Jasper's chest.

"What do you know about Bella Edward?" Carlisle was thinking of ways we could help her. He didn't even know her, but what I could gather from Jasper he seemed extremely worried about her.

"Not much, she doesn't talk to anyone. The teachers don't pay to much attention to her, they think she's a good hardworking student who's shy. As for the other students, some have tried to talk to her but she doesn't say much." I tried to think back, know body really didn't know much about her considering this was a small enough town and gossip seemed to spread like wild fire here.

"Should we ask around?" Emmett asked. He hated people who prayed on the weak, we all did.

"No. That might cause more problems for Bella, and even if we did find something, we cant force her to trust us, she needs to gain our trust before she lets us in.

"How do I do that Carlisle?" I asked.

"How do we do that!" Alice interrupted me. I stared at Alice.

"Edward she's my best friend, she's like a sister to me. I'm helping!" There was no stopping Alice. I could tell from the emotions that Jasper was feeling off of her that she was determined to make this right.

"We all want to help her Alice, and we will, but we need to take it slow." Carlisle had stopped thinking about Bella for one minute and was thinking of how proud he was of his family.

I was scared Carlisle would say this and I needed to voice my opinion.

"Carlisle, I don't think….what if…what if Bella doesn't have time for us to take it slow?" I knew he was right, I knew we needed to go slow, but what if going slow ended up badly for Bella. I just needed some reassurance from him to tell me that everything was going to be ok.

"_Edward, I know your scared but we cant push her. From what you have told us she is extremely fragile, and pushing her might push her over the edge. _I'm sorry_." _Carlisle had voiced the last part out loud. I just nodded and bent my head to the floor.

"By what you have said Edward, is she's scared of people and keeps to herself. So you and Alice will just have to keep talking to her, carefully, let her get to know you, build a trust between you. Hopefully she will let you in. Alice can you see into her future at all?" Carlisle asked.

Him like the rest of my family knew there was something that had changed my mind the night I was going to leave, when I realized how close I was of killing a human. Alice and I never told them about her vision, and they never asked, they were to happy about me staying, but I knew they were all curious to what had changed my mind when it was so dead set on leaving.

Alice was staring at me. _"Its up to you Edward. Do you want to tell them?"_ Alice asked me.

I looked back at Alice and nodded a yes. There was no point in keeping anything from my family that might help Bella in the future.

"I've only seen one vision of her." Alice began.

" I have tried many times to see her, but I cant. Anytime I think I'm getting close my vision's go fuzzy. I tried to think of Edward or myself in the future, and sometimes I think I'm getting close but then they get cloudy and I cant see it anymore. I don't understand why it does that?" Alice sounded frustrated. This was the first time I had heard about this, and I didn't like the sound of it, and by Carlisle's thoughts neither did he.

"What was the vision you did see of Bella, Alice?" Carlisle was hanging on to every word Alice was saying.

Alice looked at me and then back to Carlisle. She was focusing on the vision she had had a few days ago, and I sat transfixed in my seat watching the images in Alice's mind, wondering how the Bella from this afternoon, will ever be like the Bella from Alice's vision.

"Well, the Bella in the future is different from who she is know. She was happy and smiling for starters."

" It started off with Bella and I coming home from shopping, she was being all dramatic telling Edward she would die if she had to go out again" Alice paused and rolled her eyes. "Anyway that's when she tripped, which she must do often because we all were laughing at her, and Edward ran vampire speed to catch her, so Bella knew what we are and she didn't care. I can tell you that Bella is human, you made her lunch Esme." Alice added proudly looking at her.

" She had made a comment to Edward about having her for eternity, which makes me believe that she wants to be one of us." Alice seemed to have thought about this vision and dissected every bit of it to gather what she could about Bella.

"She's part of this family, I called her my sister, and Edward, well… Bella is Edwards soul mate." At the last part Alice had looked me straight in the eyes. She had said it with such determination that it was like she dared me to contradict her. _"It's true Edward, and I know a part of you believes it. We can do this, just believe in the vision. We can save Bella." _Alice thought.

The rest of my families thoughts were racing. They all had the same expression of shock on there faces. Jasper recovered first.

"How do you know Alice? How do you know Edward and Bella are together?" Jasper who was keeping his opinions to himself this whole time needed to ask this question to understand.

I looked up at Alice and shook my head as a warning. She just looked at me with a mischief smile.

"Well that's easy. I saw them making out in the kitchen." Alice said this really fast so I couldn't interrupt, then she burst of laughing. I growled playfully, and hid the small smile playing on my face.

Everyone's mind was on what Alice had just said. Emmett kept thinking of good jokes to voice out loud, but was having a hard time picking just one, so he just kept going through all of them to annoy me.

Jasper was trying to understand how it could be done. How I could get that close to a human, whose blood affects me worse than others, and not kill her.

Carlisle was happy for me, I was just starting to pay attention to him and ignore Emmett's, when Esme's thoughts distracted me.

" _Edward I'm so happy for you, you finally found someone. I cant wait to meet her, and to think I cooked for her."_ Esme was in her own type of shock. She cared for Bella when I had told them my concerns, but know she seemed to care for her in a different way, almost like a mother would care for her daughter.

I was looking at Esme with surprise and curiosity and I was just about to ask her what had changed, when Jasper's thoughts interrupted me. He was trying to send calming waves over to Rosalie and I didn't understand why.

The rage that was coming from Rosalie seemed to affect Jasper, he was shaking slightly, and looking between me and her.

"That's why were doing this! That's why were putting our family in jeopardy of exposure, because Edward wants to get laid by a human! This is ridiculous! We've lived around humans for centuries, the poor, the weak, and now because you want to have a future with a damaged girl who wants nothing to do with you, or anyone else for that matter, you want to put us all in danger!" Rosalie was on her feet glaring at me. I was halfway out of my own seat, my hands gripping the edge of the table. I could hear the glass breaking under my hands, but I didn't care. I was glaring back at Rosalie with hatred and growling, just hoping she tried to fight me.

"Rose" Emmett said quietly, looking between us. He stood up and grabbed Rosalie by the arm to pull her back from the dinner table.

"_Sorry man, all talk to her."_ Emmett thought, still pulling Rosalie back. He didn't know what had caused this, and I really didn't care at that moment.

"Don't bother Emmett! I don't want anything to do with her!" I said through my teeth. I was furious! Furious at Rosalie for saying those things, and furious at Emmett. All I wanted to do was rip Rosalie apart, but Emmett had to step in. How could he love someone who was so hateful?

"I'm not helping you! And I'm not helping your plain pathetic human!" Rose added before Emmett had successfully removed her from the room.

It had stayed quiet for a long time after that. Everyone seemed to have there own opinions of Rosalie but I hardly took any notice, my head was swimming in words I would have liked to have shouted at her if it wasn't for Carlisle and Esme sitting beside me.

Esme put her hand on top of one of mine. I looked down, and realized I was still gripping the edges of the table. When I was able to remove my hands, chunks of broken glass dropped to the floor. I sat back down and tried to calm myself. I needed to think about how to help Bella, rather than how to get passed Emmett to rip apart Rosalie.

"Can I speak with Carlisle for a moment please?" I asked while looking around at Alice, Jasper, and Esme. They all got up, Alice and Jasper both gave me a small smile, while Esme gave me a quick hug, then made her way towards the living room.

"_Don't worry about Rosalie Edward, we all know she's a bitch. Anyway Bella's part of this family, so she'll just have to deal with it."_ Alice thought as she walked out with Jasper. She tried to make it sound that what Rosalie had said didn't matter, but I could tell, thanks to Jasper, that she was truly hurt by what she had said about her future sister. As was the rest of the family.

When everyone had left the room I looked at Carlisle. I was about to speak but he cut me off.

"Edward about Rosalie." He began, but I put my hand up and stopped him.

"This has nothing to do with her. I don't even want to talk about her right now." I said, felling myself getting angry again.

"Alright." Carlisle put his hand of my shoulder, and waited for me to begin talking.

We both sat there in silence not talking to one another, both thinking of earlier events.

"Who would do something like this?" I said out loud, not really talking to Carlisle.

"We don't know who's doing this. She did just move here so hopefully she got away from the abuse, but if not we will find out Edward." Carlisle said slowly, also talking more to himself than me. He was thinking of this earlier when I told him that Bella had just moved her. We had both prayed that she had escaped the abuse, that it was all behind her, but neither one of us wanted to hope too early.

"I'm scared Carlisle. What if I cant gain her trust? I don't know what she's thinking. I cant hear anything. She's scared of me already, and if I start asking questions she's just going to back away even further….and what if….what if I get to close and…and her scent…" I couldn't finish.

"I know your scared Edward, but I believe you can do this. You have us behind you, we all want to help in anyway you can. Alice is scared as well, but she believes that Bella will come around, and that the two of you will be together. Which may I add, I am very happy for you." He said with a smile.

"You have made me so proud Edward. How you handled the situation with Bella when you first met her. I knew that must have been extremely difficult for you, but you did it. You concentrated on your family's welfare rather than your thirst and you succeeded, which I'm sure many of us could not do." I knew that if Carlisle was put into that situation he could have handled it, he was the strongest out of all of us, but for him to say it, and tell me he was proud, did comfort me little.

"I know you think that Bella wont trust you, but you yourself saw what Alice had seen. Trust yourself Edward. The first time you smelled her sent you didn't know it was coming, but know you do. Its not a surprise anymore, and I know you have already taken enough precaution's, like over drinking animal blood to help yourself. You don't want to hurt her Edward, and I know you wont. You love her too much."

"What?" That was the second time someone had told me that I loved Bella. I cared for her safety but did I love her?

Carlisle didn't answer. He stood up, put his hand on my shoulder, and smiled a knowing smile at me.

"As for not being able to hear her thoughts, that is a mystery. You will just have to do it the old fashion way, and try to think what women are guessing. And believe me, its not an easy thing to do." With that Carlisle grasped my shoulder one last time and headed out of the room, but not before a small laugh escaped his lips.

I felt a little better. I decided to do what Alice was thinking earlier and focus on her vision. The Bella who had been laughing and joking around with my family, that's what was going to keep me focused, to keep me from pushing to hard to fast. I wanted the Bella in the future, I wanted her to be happy and healthy, and I will to do everything in my power to make that happen.

**BPOV**

When the final bell rang, I couldn't be more relived. Gym was always difficult for me on a good day, but its become more difficult to stand for an hour, not to mention that time seems to move more slowly in here.

I walked into the girls change rooms and waited until some of the girls had left, and like always changed in the dressing rooms. I walked as fast as my feet would carry me outside with the other students who I could overhear planning tonight's events, and telling one another where to meet.

I walked to my truck and carefully jumped in, I needed to get home and start Charlie's supper, and make sure the house was clean, before he got home from work.

When I pulled up to Charlie's house I could feel my heart skip a beat. Charlie's police cruiser was parked in the drive way.

My hands became instantly sweaty as I thought of how angry he must be with me. He would be looking for his supper, that wouldn't be there, and he would be furious.

I parked my truck next to his cruiser. I knew he would have heard the roar of the truck's engine so there was no use in stalling, and I needed to scramble inside and make supper before things get worse.

I grabbed my school bag, shut the truck door behind me and walked up to the house. I took a deep breath, I could feel the pain in my ribs, my body screaming at me to run, but I grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open.

I didn't look ahead of me, instead I shut the door behind me and waited, it didn't take long.

"Your late!" Charlie started to yell. I jumped at the sound of his voice, my body was already cringing inside.

"Where the hell have you been?" He was sitting on the couch, feet on the table watching a baseball game, he was still wearing his police uniform.

The minute I had shut the door behind me, he seemed to forget everything else but me. He grabbed an empty beer can, there were ten or so scattered around the floor, and chucked it at me.

"Answer me you stupid bitch!" He threw another can at me. There was no point in dodging the cans, it would make it worse. The can that he threw next turned out to be an unopened one, and hit me right in the chest, it flew to the floor and sprayed beer all around me.

"I'm sorry sir, I was at school." I said quietly while holding onto the banister for support. Getting hit with a volleyball, and then a full beer can, I was afraid that my knees would buckle and that I might pass out. I just needed to catch my breath, but Charlie had other plans.

"Get over here!" He waved his hand furiously towards himself. I immediately removed my hand, and walked towards him over to the couch. There was no point in catching my breath, or walking slow, for what was to come next.

Charlie had gone back to watching his game, while I stood there and waited. I made sure that I was standing to the side of the TV, so I didn't block it from his view.

When he finally bent down to grab another beer, he looked towards me. He wore an evil grin and looked me up and down while taking a large swig of his beer. Then when his eyes finally meant mine, he seemed almost happy. I knew at once I had done something wrong.

"There are rules in my house Isabella." He said slowly, knowing full well that he was enjoying this.

"And one of those is, my house is to be spotless clean. So tell me Isabella, how is my house going to be kept clean when some ugly stupid pathetic little slut, wear's her shoes inside this house." His voice was slow and dangerous. I looked down and panicked. I had forgotten to take my shoes off when I entered the house, I was distracted by Charlie being home before me.

Charlie startled to laugh, taking another swig of his beer. "Your choice, go pick one."

"Yes sir." With that I quickly removed my shoes at the doorway and headed upstairs to Charlie's room. I already knew which belt I was going to choose, it was the same one I always picked.

I grabbed the belt that was hanging just inside Charlie's closet. It was a thick brown leather belt, with a silver finish four piece buckle set and four silver ranger stars. I don't know why I would always pick this one, he owned belts that weren't so thick, or didn't have stars on them, but I always chose it.

As I walked back downstairs Charlie was already opening another beer, my foot caught the fourth step and I grabbed onto the banister just in time. The belt flew out of my hands and made a clunk sound onto the floor. Charlie stood up, swayed a little, and turned around to look at me. I ran down to the belt, my body already aching, picked it up and held it out to Charlie, who looked down at the belt and had a satisfied look on his face.

"This belt is more important than you, you little slut, if you ever drop it down those stairs again, all throw you down after it! Do you understand?" He spat at me, while taking the belt from my open hands.

"Yes sir." I replied quietly.

"That little stunt will cost you extra. Now turn around, and put your hands on the wall!"

I turned around and walked towards one the living room walls. I put my palms up against the cold chipped paint and waited. I heard Charlie take one last gulp of his beer, crush it in his hand, and then he threw it at me. I could hear his footsteps come behind me, and could smell the liquor coming off of him. He grabbed the back of my hair, and put his lips to my ear.

"I'm going to enjoy this, I always do. Scream for me Isabella." With that he let go of my hair, and took a few steps away from me. I could hear him laughing as he gripped the edge of the belt in one hand, threw it behind him, and with a force, crashed the heavy leather against my back.

I gasped as the first blow hit me, but I remained standing. I bit down on my lips to make sure I didn't scream.

As Charlie started whipping my back I could feel the silver stars hit my spine, I bit down harder on my lips, and began tasting blood.

When Charlie had finally had enough, he threw the belt at me and headed back to the couch. I heard a click sound as he opened another beer, and turned up the volume of his baseball game.

"My supper better be ready for me in twenty minutes. I worked up quite an appetite, my arm is pretty sore after all of that. How about you Isabella, how are you feeling?" He asked sarcastically, not turning around. He started laughing at his own joke.

I was still facing the wall, but I was no longer standing. I was kneeling on the floor, my hands at my sides. I was leaning against the cold wall for support, I kept my eyes closed and pressed my forehead hard against it. I could feel the clothes on my back ripped open, from Charlie's strength, and blood dripping onto the floor below me. I already knew without looking in a mirror, that I would have indents of ranger stars and slash marks all across my back.

I looked beside me and picked up the leather belt. It had pieces of fabric stuck around the sliver buckles from my sweater, one of the stars points was broken off, and all around the belt, drops of my blood were dripping onto my hand.

I placed my hands onto the floor and tried to pick myself up. I didn't work. My body felt so tired and weak, that it seemed to refuse to stand up, but I needed too. I couldn't sit here, I had things that needed to be done.

On the third try I finally managed to get to my feet. It felt like my body had been broken into a million pieces, but I refused to cry or scream out. No one would hear, no one would come.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys, I'm sorry for taking so long to put this chapter up, but I promise the next one wont be so long of a wait (fingers crossed). Anyway hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading.

P.S. I love getting reviews, its what makes me keep writing so keep it up!

Thanks!

**BPOV**

"Just stay still!" I whispered angrily to myself.

There was an internal battle going on inside my head. I needed to stay awake, but I also needed to close my eyes. If I laid on my back I might scream from the open cuts, but if I laid on my stomach I might scream from what I thought were broken ribs that felt like they were about to break through my skin.

It took me 40minutes to finally decide that I would sit on my knees on the floor and rest my head against my bed. I like to think that I decided this, but in all honesty I felt exhausted and fell to my knees.

Charlie had left right after I had made him dinner and washed my blood of the walls downstairs. I never understand why, but I think he gets a thrill of watching me clean my own blood, maybe he likes to see his handy work?

It was almost 3:00 in the morning, and I felt more exhausted now than I had felt in a long time. I tried to take my mind of the pain by reading, but my eyes would start to droop from my book, and my head would begin to fall. Even the slightest movement in my body would wake me up from the pain, but mostly I was scared to close them. You would think I would feel safer when Charlie wasn't around, but not knowing where he was, or when he might show up made me more scared.

I tired to focus on Wuthering Heights but nothing seemed to work. I couldn't move, my legs were numb from sitting on them and even if I thought about getting up and walking around, I knew I would just fall to my knees again. I needed to sleep, my whole body was yelling at me to close my eyes, but what if he came back? What would happen if I was so out of it that I didn't hear him come in? What would he do if he saw me sleeping? All these questions kept me awake, but it wasn't going to be long until my body would shut down, and then what?

Just as I looked back down at my book, I heard a car door slam, it was three in the morning, I knew it wasn't a neighbor. Not long after, footsteps could be heard coming up the drive way.

I stayed where I was. I slid my book under my bed and then waited. I didn't move, I hardly breathed, I just listened.

Charlie seemed to have some trouble opening the door. I knew just by the sound of him pulling on the door instead of pushing it open that he was drunk.

I heard his feet step into the house, and he slammed the door shut behind him. I waited. Sometimes he came in my room to yell, other times he would walk passed my door to his room and pass out.

After a few minutes of walking around, I heard his feet stumble up the stairs, I held my breath. His feet passed my door and down the hall to his room, I let out a breath but then stopped when I heard him rummaging in his room. This was knew!

This scared me even more. I waited in silence. I closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate on the noise coming from down the hall. He seemed to be opening and closing drawers, maybe he was looking for something?

For about five minutes the sounds of drawers opening and closing was all that could be heard, but then all at once everything went quite.

I heard the sound of a zipper, and a door opening. Charlie was walking back towards my bedroom. All I could hear were his feet walking across the floor, and my heart beating so loud I thought I was going to give myself away.

I waited.

"Please go downstairs. Please leave me alone. Please." I begged.

I turned my head, saw a pair of feet stop at my closed door, and watched the door knob turn.

He came barging in my room, took one look around and then came charging towards me.

"Get up now!" Charlie grabbed my wrist and pulled me off of the floor. My legs were to numb to support me and I fell backwards. I let out a cry of pain when I hit the ground, the slashes on my back feeling like they were being ripped open.

Charlie had staggered a little when I had fallen, and the look that came down on me made me cringe inside.

He bent down and grabbed my throat with his other hand and brought me to my feet.

"I said get up!" He whispered in a dangerous voice.

He let go of my throat, but kept his right hand tightly on my wrist making sure to put as much pressure on it as he could.

He led me from my room, picked up a black bag that he must have dropped outside my door, and dragged me down the stairs.

When we hit the last step Charlie squeezed my wrist, threw me in front of him and onto the floor. I landed hard on my back, my head ricocheting of the floor. I covered my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming. He stood over top of me for a minute, smiled, and then picked his jacket up off the couch.

"How many times do I have to tell you to get up! You lazy little bitch!" He yelled looking back at me.

I crawled onto my hands and knees and painfully picked myself up off the ground.

Charlie was ready for me. He backhanded me right across my face.

I staggered for a moment, but I managed to stay on my feet.

Charlie grabbed my keys from the side table, and threw open the door.

"Lets go!" He pushed me out the door, and shut it behind him.

I wanted to ask where we were going. I wanted to run, but Charlie's hand was pressing against my shoulder leading me towards my truck, and I knew better than to ask.

Charlie opened the passenger side of the truck and climbed in, he pointed for me to take the drivers side.

I made my way around the truck as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast. I was scared of Charlie, I was scared that I didn't know where we were going, and more scared that I didn't know what was going to happen to me.

"Just another day, Bella, you can get through it." But did I want to get through, it I asked myself?

I opened the driver side door and slowly and very painfully slid into the seat, my hands gripping the steering wheel and biting my lip not to cry.

"Drive to Port Angeles's airport! Wake me when you get there!" Charlie closed his eyes, and put his head on the side of the seat.

Without a word I reversed out of the driveway and headed towards the main road. I had never been to Port Angeles before and I had to pay attention to where I was going. I heard that it usually takes about an hour and some to drive from Forks, but I knew in my truck it would be almost double that.

I needed to concentrate on the road. It was pitch black outside and even though there were hardly any cars there seemed to be a lot of animals.

Even with concentrating on the road my eyes were still trying to close. I looked over at Charlie who seemed to be passed out, so I put the air conditioning on low hoping that the cool air would make me stay awake, and praying that Charlie wouldn't notice.

Staying awake was my biggest issue, but trying to not pay attention to the fire that was burning through my body was extremely difficult. While the truck managed to hit every bump in the road I could feel the back of my sweater become damp with blood. Every time the truck moved my seat would shift, causing my back to bleed. And then there was my chest. I could only take small breaths without causing to much pain. I needed to think about something else.

The drive felt like hours had gone bye. The rain outside was making it hard to see the road, and even though it felt like it could be morning, the sun refused to come out.

While concentrating on the road, I decided to think of Wuthering Heights. Since I had read it so often I figured I could read the book in my head. I was just finishing chapter seven when a large sign said 'Welcome to Port Angeles'.

I made it! Know I just needed to find the airport. I glanced down at the clock it read 4:45am.

I was hoping that Charlie would wake up soon, I really didn't want to wake him but I knew I would have to, and I knew their would be consequences for doing so.

Just when I was thinking I should stop at a gas station to ask, I saw a sign saying 'airport' with an arrow going straight. I was relived. I followed the sign and about ten minutes later I saw the terminal.

I drove in, but wasn't sure to park in long term or short term? I had no idea why Charlie wanted to come to the airport, or what would happen to me once we got here. I could either take a chance and park in short term but if I was wrong and was supposed to park in long term Charlie would be furious. I decided to park on the side of the road and wake him up, it was my only plan for not getting him to angry.

I first turned off the engine, hoping he might wake from the sound of the truck but he didn't.

"Charlie" I whispered.

Still nothing. I didn't want to touch him incase he grabbed my arm and broke it, so I cleared my throat.

"Um….Charlie, were here." I said a bit louder.

Still nothing. I was just stretching out my shaky hand, when a semi-trailer passed my truck and honked the horn. Not only did I jump but Charlie did to.

"What the fuck is going on?" He yelled looking around.

I cringed back into the driver's side door, making as much distance away from him as I could.

"Where at the airport." I whispered not making eye contact.

"And were you planning on waking me anytime soon?" He asked with a sneer, while rubbing his eyes.

Before I had a chance to answer him, he started yelling again.

"Why the hell are you parked like this! Get this piece of shit in the long term. Now!"

I started up the truck and drove under a sign saying 'long term parking'. If he wanted me to park in long term, where exactly was I going?

I grabbed a ticket from the booth, and found a parking spot. I turned of the engine and waited for what was coming next.

"I'm going out of town for awhile. Police business." He said laughing. He always thought it was amusing that he ended up being cop, and now a sheriff.

"I hope to hell your not thinking that I'm bringing you! Your to go to school, and come straight home. If theirs one item out of place when I get back so help you!" He threatened.

Charlie looked at me with a smile, grabbed his bag from the back and put his hand on the door.

He looked at me again, and then at the truck keys. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I tried to shrink myself into my seat.

He grabbed the keys from the engine, and put them in his pocket.

The look of shock on my face made him laugh.

"You didn't think I would let you drive back did you?" He said still laughing.

"But how.." I stopped myself before I could finish asking my question.

"But how…." He said mocking me with a laugh.

"If I let you take the truck back who knows what kind of trouble you might get into. You can walk back."

The look of shock must have showed in my face again, I was thinking how long it would take me to get back. Charlie didn't seem to care, he thought it was one of his greatest plans yet.

"Don't give me that look, I'm doing you a favor, have you seen yourself lately, what did you do go out and gain twenty pounds." He started yelling again.

He looked out the window, and then looked back at me with a huge smile.

"It's perfect weather for a piece of garbage like you. Lets hope all this rain takes that awful stink from you! G et out now!" I held my breath, put my hand on the door and opened it. A shiver went down my spine as a gust of wind came right towards me.

"Oh and Isabella, I have some friends who might be dropping bye to check on you." He gave me an evil grin, put his fist hard against the center of my back and pushed me out of my seat and into the rain.

I didn't think I would make it back, but I knew I would have to try. I wrapped my arms around my chest and started making my way back towards Forks. I knew I needed to stay off the highway and keep to the tree line making sure I was out of sight. If someone sees me and Charlie finds out, it would be worse than anything I could imagine. He would accuse me of trying to wreck his reputation with the towns people, and I didn't want to think what the consequences would be.

"Just keep walking Bella, don't think about it." I told myself. I knew the minute I stopped walking my feet would stop working, and my body would fall to the ground, and I would be lost.

EPOV

So here I was. On my way to Bella's house at last.

After my family had left me in the dinning room, I jumped out of my seat and was halfway to Bella's house before I stopped. I wanted to see her again, I needed to make sure she was safe, but first I needed to make sure I was safe to see her.

I reluctantly turned around, my feet didn't want to move but in order to protect her I needed to make sure I could be her protector.

I ran back towards the house, and into the forest to drink as much animal blood as I could before tomorrow morning.

It was still early when I slowly drove my car up her street, I glanced at the clock, 6:55am. I didn't think she would be up yet, but I parked across from her house and waited knowing that I would feel better now that I was watching over her.

When I turned of my engine and looked at Bella's house the lights weren't on, and Bella's truck was gone. I knew I wouldn't be able to hear her thoughts, but I listened for her heartbeat. I had concentrated on that sound from the second day I met her, and could know distinguish it from others.

But there was nothing. I couldn't even hear Chief Swan in the house, yet his cruiser was still parked in the driveway. Her house was empty.

I thought maybe I could knock on her door, or peak inside her home, but I could hear Bella's neighbors getting ready for work, or making there kids breakfast, and didn't know what they would think if they saw me, or what Bella would think if she pulled up and I was standing at her front door?

I waited for about five more minutes, then decided I would drive to school and see if she was already there.

I put my car in drive and headed for the school.

I hoped Bella's truck didn't break down, I knew it was old and today was a horrible day if you had to walk. It was pouring rain, and it smelled like snow was coming.

I pulled into the school, the parking lot was empty. I stepped out of my car and sniffed the air, maybe Bella was here, but I couldn't smell her scent anywhere. I was starting to get worried.

I drove out of the parking lot, and headed back towards Bella's house. I pulled out my phone and hit redial.

"Hey Edward, I have a huge surprise for you when you get home, your going to love it. Well your going to hate for a while but eventually your love it." Alice was saying, I cut her off.

"Alice I cant find Bella, can you can see her?" I tried to make my voice as calm as possible, but I knew Alice saw right through me.

"All call you back." Alice hung up the phone.

Just as I was pulling back onto Bella's street my phone rang.

"Edward head towards Port Angeles." Alice's voice had changed, she sounded nervous.

"Why Alice, tell me what you saw." I was already doing a u-turn and heading for the highway.

"I didn't see a lot, just a sign saying 'Welcome to Port Angeles' and you had pulled off to the side of the road. I'm not sure what it means, but that's all I can see. All let you know if I get more." I snapped my phone shut, and hit the gas.

What was Bella doing in Port Angeles, and at this time of day? And why was I on the side of the road? Maybe she has a flat tire, or maybe her truck broke down? Either way the weather was getting worse, it was now pouring down rain and snow, and I didn't want Bella to get stuck in this.

It would normally take someone about an hour and some to get there, but at the speed I was going it would take me less than half.

I listened for cops that may be parked waiting to catch speeders, or other cars that were on the road, while my eyes concentrated on each side of the shoulders. I wasn't sure if she was going to Port Angeles, or coming back to Forks, so I didn't know what side she would be on.

I looked down at my clock 7:23am, I was driving for about twenty minutes and making extremely good time. I didn't need to concentrate on my driving just what was around the road, but both hands never left the steering wheel. I needed to grip something, I was so nervous to see her again, and so scared of what I might see. I decided that I should put some music on, maybe that would calm me down.

I was just about to hit the play button, when I saw a flash of color from the corner of my left eye. I hit the breaks, and pulled onto the shoulder. I wasn't sure what I had seen, my car had flown bye so fast. I turned off the engine, and opened the door.

Just as I stepped out and closed the car door behind me, I was drenched from head to foot from the rain and snow. I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath. I could smell the fresh rain, the way the grass smelt when it was wet, and just a hint of freesia.

"Bella!" I snapped my eyes back open. It cant be her.

My feet wouldn't move, I felt paralyzed. There was no way she would be out here. Her truck was nowhere in sight, and know body would be walking in this weather.

I listened to the sounds around me. Ignoring the rain and the wind, I listened for her. The sound of her feet hitting the ground, every breath she took, but most importantly I was listening for…

"Her heartbeat!" I whispered stunned, I had heard it.

Leaving my car where it was I ran back down the road and into the ditch. Just as I was running up a small hill, I spotted her. She was just a little ways ahead of me. Her feet were dragging behind her in the light snow, she was drenched from the rain, and her body seemed to be swaying back and fourth. Panic, heartbroken, and rage all consumed me in a matter of seconds. What was she doing out here? Why was she walking? Where was her truck? These questions I was determined to find out, but first I needed to help her.

As I made my way towards her I decided I needed to play it cool, tell her I saw her walking and ask her if she needs a ride. I was catching up to her, and slowed my pace down, I didn't want to scare her by coming up behind her, so I needed to say something now to let her know I was here, but my voice failed me. Everything I was feeling a few minutes ago, had come rushing back to me.

I cleared my throat, and found my voice, but it wasn't cool and collective like I had planned.

"Bella what are you doing out here" I half yelled over the wind. She turned half surprised to see someone, and half frightened to be seen. At the sheer sight of me running towards her, her body tensed up and she looked terrified, I stopped in my tracks.

She came to a complete stop as well, only her eyes were moving, she seemed to be looking for somewhere to hide.

"Bella what are you doing out here, where's your truck?" I tried to make my voice more calm, but I could hear the panic. I wanted to run to her, but the look of pure fear on her face kept me rooted to my spot.

She just stared at me, her voice seemed to be lost. Her body was shaking, she was only wearing a pair of black sweat pants, and a sweatshirt. Something was wrong.

She tried to open her mouth, maybe to answer me, but her teeth started chattering so hard that she had to close it again.

"Bella its freezing out here. Here take this." I unzipped my jacket, mentally hitting myself for not wearing a heavier one, and put my arm out for her to take it.

The minute my arm went out she backed away and shook her head.

"Bella please I don't need it, and your freezing, please take it." I pleaded to her. I needed her to put it on. She was barley wearing anything, her arms were wrapped around her chest to try to stop herself from shivering, and her skin was turning blue. I was afraid she would become hypothermic if not already.

"Please don't, please put it back on,…… you'll get cold, ………please put it back on." She was exhausted and frightened. She couldn't finish a sentence without shivering. I couldn't take it anymore.

I held my jacket out to her again, but she just backed away. By the look on her face, and the small cry's that escaped her lips, I knew she was in pain from walking. I held my hands in front of me, holding my jacket in my right hand.

"Bella I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I'm going to slowly walk towards you, and hand you the jacket ok?" I knew what her response would be, another head knob, I pretended I didn't see it.

I placed one foot slowly in front of the other and walked towards her. She slowly moved backwards but seemed to be having trouble with her feet.

When I walked towards her, her scent hit me hard. I was expecting some trouble with that, but mixed in with the rain and the snow seemed to heighten her scent. I kept my hands apart making sure I didn't make a fist, that's what I would have done to keep myself controlled but Bella seemed to notice when I did this and I knew it scared her.

I took one more step, but stopped abruptly, her scent was their but that wasn't all I could smell. She was bleeding from someplace I couldn't see, fresh and dried blood was mingled in the air around her. This time I couldn't go slow, I couldn't just wait around and watch her suffer like this.

"I need…..I need to get back." Her voice was a whisper. She was beginning to slur her words. She tried to move her feet to continue walking but didn't seem to have the energy to move.

"Bella I can take you back. Please let me drive you home, my car is just over there." I said pointing towards my Volvo but not taking my eyes off of her. I asked if I could drive her home, but it wasn't a question, I wasn't going to let this go much further, I would pick her up and lock her in my car until we got back to Forks. I knew that might not help the situation later on, but for right now it would be the only thing I could do.

"I cant stop walking…..I need to move my feet." She wasn't talking to me anymore, and I knew she thought I couldn't hear her.

I was still walking slowly towards her. I still had my jacket held out in front of me.

Bella eyes seemed out of focus, but as soon as I would make another step closer her eyes would be on me again.

I knew what was going to happen, before it did. But I wasn't close enough to catch her and her eyes were still fixed on me, so I couldn't run towards her.

She fell to her knees and let out a whimper. Once her eyes were to the floor, I ran straight towards her.

"Bella look at me." I said kneeling down and looking into her closed eyes. I lightly threw my jacket over her shoulders.

"Bella we need to get back to my car. You cant stay out here any longer." There was shear panic in my voice. I couldn't tell if she had caught anything I was saying.

After what seemed like minutes, but only seconds, she finally opened her eyes. If I could have cried, I would have shed tears in that moment. All the pain, the exhaustion, the fear, everything showed in her eyes at that one look.

"Bella I'm taking you to my car, can you walk?" Even if she would have said yes, I know I wouldn't have let her walk, but I knew she could still hear me so I wanted to ask her anyway.

I decided I would only wait a few seconds for an answer.

Finally she tried to open her eyes as she spoke, but what she said scared me.

"I'm sorry" she whispered as she lightly shook her head, and closed her eyes.

That was all I could take. I lightly placed my right hand under her legs, and my left arm on her back, again not taking my eyes away from hers.

Just as my hand had pressed into her back to lift her, she through her eyes open, and let out a **scream so terrifying I felt my dead heart rip out of my chest.**

I panicked, my body went limp. I had smelt the fresh blood as my left hand had pressed lightly on her back, I had caused her pain. And I didn't know what to do next?

If I put her back down, I didn't think I would be able to get her back up and then what was I supposed to do, let her lay out here for the rest of the day? I quickly repositioned my hand to the back of her neck not letting her out of my arms, and ran not caring if she noticed, to my car.

"I'm sorry Bella, I'm so sorry." I kept saying to her.

Once we got back to the car, I threw open the passenger side door, maybe a little to hard, and placed Bella carefully in the seat.

I ran to the drivers side, turned the ignition, and hit the gas.

I cranked the car heat and turned all the air vents towards her.

She didn't seem to notice when I had put her in my car, but when I hit the gas and we began moving she quickly became alert, her eyes flickering from me, to the door.

I may not be able to hear her thoughts but I knew what she was thinking. She was looking for a way out. I didn't know if I should lock the doors in case she tried to jump out, or unlock them so that she might be less scared?

I needed to break the silence it was to quiet, the only sound coming from the car was her heartbeat racing. I didn't know what she thought of the situation. Was she scared of me or just scared in general? Did she think I was going to hurt her? I wanted to make her at ease, but I didn't know what to say?

"Um…are you warm enough?" What a stupid question to ask. Of course she's not warm enough, she's been standing outside for hours possibly.

Her eyes shifted towards me but she didn't answer my question.

I took my right hand off the steering wheel, I thought maybe some background music might make her calmer. Instead I heard her catch her breath, and slide closer to the passenger door.

What was I supposed to say or do? If I told her I wasn't going to hurt her, I don't think she would have believed me so instead I tried not to notice, and pressed play.

As soon as Clair de lune came on, her eyes went from the stereo to me.

I looked her way and our eyes met. They seemed softer, calmer, less afraid than she was a few minutes ago. She looked back at the stereo.

"Do you know Debussy?" I quietly asked surprised.

Her head moved in my direction, and she opened her mouth to speak, but then her eyes froze between the stereo and me. I could hear her inhale a deep breath, and her heart started to race again.

"Bella what's wrong?" I instantly panicked.

She didn't say anything, her eyes still glued to whatever had gotten her attention. I followed her eyes to where they were frozen, and realized she was staring at the speedometer. I was driving about 180km/h. I didn't even notice how fast I was driving, I just wanted to get her to Carlisle.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to drive this fast….. all slow down." I said quietly, watching her face, as she watched the speedometer come down. I hated driving slow, and hated it more that it was going to take more time to get her to Carlisle, but I had caused the fear to come back into her eyes. Just when she had lost it, when she seemed almost calm, and she was going to say something, maybe answer my question, maybe not, but she was going to say something and I had ruined it.

A few minutes passed in silence, I tried to keep my eyes on the road, for Bella's sake, but I could see her head move forward in the chair, and then jerk back into the seat. She was exhausted and the heat, and the music of the piano wasn't helping her to stay awake.

"Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, please don't fall asleep." She kept saying. I don't think she even noticed she was saying it out loud. Her eyes kept closing and then she would jerk them back open.

When was the last time she had slept?

I kept my mouth shut. I knew if I said anything she would become alert again, and I wanted her to sleep, I needed her to sleep. She has been exhausted from the first time I had met her, she needed to sleep.

About two minutes later she was out.

I waited another three minutes, just to make sure she wasn't going to wake back up, and then hit the gas pedal. I felt terrible for driving fast knowing that it scared her, but I wanted to get her looked at, and I wanted to put her in a bed where she could have a proper sleep.

Bella was still asleep when we passed the 'Welcome to Forks' sign. I had to try to keep my eyes focused on the road, rather then watch Bella sleep. Her breathing had me worried. Instead of long deep breaths, hers were short and irregular.

I drove through town, and stopped at a red light. The minute the car had come to a complete stop, Bella started to whimper in her sleep. I panicked. I looked around, everything was silent so I blew through the red light and didn't slow down until I drove up the long drive towards my house.

I slowly hit the brakes stopping right at my front door. I turned off the engine and ran to the passenger door.

"Carlisle!" I cried out.


End file.
